Billboard-lovesparklepretty

I try to post regular "Recently Posts" to remind myself of all of the shenanigans that has happened lately. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to document these memories as well as I should have. So, this is a "Forget Me Not Post"-a compilation of several blessings, events and moments from the past month or so.

The husband and I had a date night, in. My father in law watched our son for us as we whipped up another recipe from our cook book we bought recently (remember the first recipe?). We listened to some Frank Sinatra and put our own spin on the ingredients since we didn't have "ziti" pasta, enough arugula and apparently the wrong ricotta cheese was purchased for this dish. As much fun as we had cooking this dinner, I'd love to say that this recipe turned out super delicious but because of our inaccuracy of ingredients, it definitely could have been better (we know for next time).

Nothing beats the time we spent together that night and I'd do it all over again...ingredient mishaps and all.

A few months ago, I was asked by my dear friend Aurora to write a post for GUTS-Girls Using Their Strength "is a movement dedicated to women of the world making a change through transparency, truth and the love of Jesus." GUTS is curated by empowering stories from women about life, saving grace, struggles, transformations, strengths, dreams, etc. As I read through the words of real women I can relate to, it is SO refreshing and inspiring how the Lord uses each of us to fulfill His purpose!

I was asked to write about Redefining Resolutions and as I started to type, a flood of words started to appear on the screen as I began to share my heart in a way that I didn't initially expect.

I started to share my past goals and new found purpose as I received a positive pregnancy test in March of 2010. I shared the pull I experienced between choosing to be a stay at home mom, continuing nursing school and/or following my creative passion and desires as well as redefining moments.

This is a little piece of my heart:

Pregnancy Redefined my Resolutions on the GUTS blog.

A few thoughts from today:

*How in the world do you dress for sum-fall? It's still way too hot out but I want so badly to dress for fall already and break out the richer colors, comfy cardis and ankle boots! Instead, I will go "simple style" today with a statement necklace (which I LOVE) from Lindis Delicate Edge. Love Sparkle Pretty readers get 20% off your order with the code LSPLOVES20!! Go see her pretty shop here!

*So excited for Disneyland in a couple weeks with other mommy friends. I'm totally not a part of the Disney obsessed but I love a reason to get dressed up and since we are dressing as Disney characters, I might as well have fun with it. Turning myself into Pocahontas for the night. It's time for a Pow Wow!

*It's back to square one with house hunting. A few nights ago, we backed out of escrow from the house we put an offer in. Honestly, I'm relieved after finding so many repairs that need to be done during the home inspection. I just don't want to sign a billion more papers!

*I need to take more power naps. Enough said.

*After breaking down at women's bible study today, I thought about the fruits of my labor being put into my sweet, ever growing son. I broke down because while there were several other women with kids playing in the house, my son seemed to be the only one getting on top of tables, banging on tin toys (loudly), eating other peoples food, hitting others with paint rollers and sticking toys in the toilet. After trying to discipline him over and over and still not getting anywhere with soothing his actions, I took him into the other room, closed the door and sobbed as he looked at me with his compassionate eyes. His strong will is overbearing most days and it certainly doesn't make motherhood easy.
As I think about these past (almost) 2 years of being a mom, it's been a struggle but I know that the fruits of my bearing, the results of my call to motherhood won't be all for nothing. I'm learning everyday and will appreciate every moment-even the hard ones. If you are a mother, remember this and cling to this. Raise your child(ren) in the way they should go and let God handle the rest.

What has been on your mind today?

Here are the babes about a year ago. This makes my heart happy. :) Levi looks like a little yoda...LOL

There is always something to be grateful for but lately, I have been feeling even more thankful than usual. It started with something that Brant Hansen said one day on Air1. He was talking about that article that was just published about children costing a crazy amount of money and how much of a cost "burden" they can be.Brant gave a quote from Justin Guarini about this same topic that actually put tears in my eyes. He said, 
"There was a time when I could have thrown down cash for a house, and had any number of lovers in and out the door. A flashy car and clothes to match. An ego to trump them all.

When he said this, I felt a little guilty because at times, I feel like I don't appreciate how much of a blessing my son is. Sometimes, I get so overwhelmed with his energizer bunny, bouncing off walls, jumping off tables, throwing things behavior. I felt guilty for the times I've said "I need a break" or "this is so much harder than I ever thought."

He is well, he is alive, he is curious, he is unique and he is unbelievably precious and loved in not only mine and my husband's eyes but the Lord's eyes as well.

I would never change what God has blessed me with and I am SO thankful for the life I've been given-including our little lover-everything about him. Yes, sometimes I may feel as if I "need a break" from the messes of smeared fruit snacks in the carpet, the brief heart attacks from watching my son get on tables to try and jump off and the constant discipline to get him to stop putting random things in the outlets.

This is life and it's filled with lots of kisses until bellies start hurting from laughter, hugs that squeeze tightly, hands that tangle up and "I Love You"s to last a lifetime yet can't ever be said enough. I would never trade any of this for the world and I'm thankful to have reflected due to a couple minutes listening to the radio.

Think this post stops there? Not entirely.

A few days ago, I was also attacked by a few large dogs. I don't really want to get too much into it because I don't want to think about the details but I can honestly find ENORMOUS gratitude in that situation as well. I could have had my son with me, I could have had my face severely wounded or even organs punctured BUT even in that moment, I was being protected.

My side has bite marks, I have a very small gash on my head and a couple deep punctures in my right arm. My arm got the worst of it but my physical wounds are definitely healing quickly with lots of prayers from family and friends. My emotional wounds will certainly take longer though. Today, I saw my neighbors small dog wondering into our yard and my heart stopped. I turned around to walk into the house praying the dog wouldn't follow me and I shut the door as quickly as possible.

Yet through this, I have so much more to be grateful for because I am well and I am able to be at home with my family.

This is what I will dwell on.
Thank you Lord!

What are you thankful for lately?

Ok, so I know that in yesterday's personal post I said that my next post would be all about the Elevate blog conference I attended on Saturday buuutt I'm waiting on some of the photos to be available to share. With that said, this post is about my recent Mother's Day and shopping shenanigans with my son today.

For starters, yesterday was a pretty amazing Mother's Day starting off a smiling baby boy, happy husband and a "build your own waffle" breakfast at my mother in law's house.

Now, in light of the Mother's Day timeline, I want to share another story which happened today between a mother and a son. Remember when I said my son is obsessed with balloons? Well today, I was the mother with the baby throwing a massive tantrum in the middle of the store over a balloon! Ha!

This is reality my friends.

I remember looking at mom's with the screaming kids thinking that my kid(s) will never do that. Lo and behold, that was me a couple hours ago.

Once Levi saw the balloons near the checkout lines, he started yelling which turned into crying, pointing and trying to get out of the cart. I usually won't get him a balloon thinking that I don't want to feed into the whining but this time I did because I was with a good friend and her two kids and her son wanted one (mind you-they were both silent). I thought everything would be fine now that he had his own balloon so I tied it to the front of the cart to keep it from floating away. This was a mistake on my part because the tantrum increased from pointing and whining to now throwing his head back and forth in the cart because the balloon was tied to the cart and not being held freely in his hand. When he tried to pull the string and noticed that he couldn't hold it on his own-he was so upset!

You know what happened next? We left the store. That was that.

The terrible twos is a lie in our scenario seeing how those tantrums have started much sooner.

Thank you Jesus for a healthy baby boy though. Even when it's hard, I'm grateful that at the end of the day I have a son who I can cuddle with to sooth those tantrums away.

Happy belated Mother's Day!