Are you Kidding me?!

Brian and I are at a friend's house right now getting help with our taxes. He lives in a dorm-style setup with a bunch of other men. If you've ever been to a men's dorm or shared house you know most of them are unavoidably messy and man-ish boy-ish. But I just saw something that topped my list of messy and boy-ish. I watched one of his housemates walk into the bathroom with his laptop so he could keep playing video games while he used the toilet.

Enter Mark Driscoll:

Thank you Pastor Mark. 

What to Expect

I love my What to Expect When You're Expecting email updates. A couple times a week they email me and tell me fun facts about the baby and some not to so fun facts about me. Like this week:

This week marks the beginning of some serious weight gain. Your baby's weight in the next four weeks alone should double (and you may feel as though yours is too). 

I'm glad they told me what to expect or I probably would have started to worry. This morning I was starting to think "I know I comforted myself with cheesecake when Brian had to work late last night, but geez..." 

Birth Research

I've started doing my research for birthing methods, but I still can't find enough information to feel informed. Anyone have any recommended reading?

Update

Brian and I are officially settled in Colorado Springs. In August Brian signed on full time with Aspen Technologies, the company he's been temping with for about a year. He's enjoying the work and the fast pace they have there.

In August we also expanded our little family to three :) Baby Ramsey will make his or her debut May 25 2011. We would love suggestions for names if you have any. The first trimester was a little rough with constant nausea and fatigue, but I'm at 15 weeks and finally feeling good again. Everyone's been asking for pregnancy pictures but there's not a lot to see yet.

I'm working as a temp until the baby comes or until I get too pregnant to go to work. I'm on my second assignment in 3 months as an apartment leasing agent. This is the first time I've worked a 40 hour week since Brian and I married. In a lot of ways it's fun because we come home tired at the end of the day and feel like a team. In a lot of other ways it's draining because the laundry never gets done and my house isn't quite as clean as it used to be.

Aside from my growing laundry pile and dirty floors, it's a very rich season of life for us. I could say a lot more by way of updating, but I'd better run. I'll write again soon!

Happy Apple

This weekend Brian and I went to Happy Apple Orchard. I'm sure a lot of people would have considered it too hot for apple picking, but we had a great time. The Gala and Jonathan apples were the only ones ready, so we got Gala for snacks and Jonathan for baking. 

We rode on a trailer to the middle of the orchard where the tractor driver, in all seriousness, gave us our "snake instructions." If we saw a rattler we were supposed to tell him right away. If we saw a bull snake we shouldn't do anything- they're nice snakes. His speech was very comforting as we set out into the tall grass to collect our apples. 

It was my first time at a real orchard, but it reminded me a lot of childhood. Walking around in tall grass eating fruit right off the tree. 

I made an apple crisp after recovering from my heatstroke. It was light and simple and so perfect. Except that it could have used a little more butter, but other than that, so perfect. 

Apple Crisp

4 c. thinly sliced Jonathan apples

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. oats

6 T soft butter

a hefty dose of cinnamon

1/2 c. raw sugar

Grease pie pan and fill with apples. Blend other ingredients, spread atop apples and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Things I Read This Week

Here are some things I read this week that I think are worth passing along:

Pray with Perspective from TheResurgence

This was particularly helpful this week because my prayers have been filled with "I," "me," "my," "us," ad nauseum. 

Jesus knows our frame. He knows we generally don’t need to see our sin as the first item on the agenda at every meeting with God. Better in fact to get our eyes altogether off of ourselves. That way we gain perspective and hope. 

As I mediated on that I realized the moments this week that I've had godly hope were the ones where I took my eyes off my sin, Brian's sin, our problems and put them on the God who is, and is good. 


EARLY Will I Seek You from Candice Watters at Family Making

In Colorado, rising before the sun often brings the benefit of actually seeing the "purple mountains majesty." But that stunning view of Pike's Peak alone isn't enough to wake me. It's what happens when I miss that window that motivates me to roll out of bed.

8 Snares Set by Fear of Man from TheResurgence

When we’re overly concerned with “getting it right,” we turn people into projects to accomplish. We withhold our compassion and grow reserved and calculating in our pursuit of people.

I so wish this did not resonate with me. But it did, and in some way so did the other seven you can read in the original post.

Is it OK for Moms to have jobs Outside the Home? from John Piper at Desiring God

Mothering and homemaking are huge and glorious jobs. What children need at age one, five, six, fourteen, eighteen is simply amazing, and so is what those needs call forth from a woman's creativity and heart and mind, personally for each one of these little ones that are coming along.

I loved John Piper's focus as he answered this question. It was refreshing to hear him talking about the needs of children and the creativity of women to meet those needs rather than just talking gender roles.

Think of Israel

This morning was a low morning for me. After a relatively peaceful hour of drinking coffee and praying with Brian, spending time with the Lord and eating breakfast I was absolutely overcome with anxiety about the uncertainty of our future. Brian suggested that I return to the kitchen table to read and pray some more -- to find peace he said. I hate being told to do the right thing when I just want to wallow in anxiety and self-pity. And Brian telling me to go and find peace reminded me a lot of when my friend Candice tells her 3 year old to go upstairs and find his smile. 

So I kind of did that, but ended up back in bed with the covers over my head. (Which is what I imagine my 3 year old friend does too before he finds his smile.) Brian found me there and said, "Sweetie, I want you to think about the Nation of Israel..." I immediately burst into tears, "WE ARE IN THE WILDERNESS ... sob, sob... WANDERING AROUND INDEFINITELY... sob ..."

"No, actually I was thinking about Caleb and Joshua and how they went into the promised land to spy it out and came back saying that God was plenty big to deliver it into their hands. Let's be like Caleb and Joshua, let's trust that God is good and big enough to provide for us, to deliver a promised land to us."

"sniff...  sniff ... Caleb and Joshua ... okay."

"I really think that's what would please God in this season of waiting, that we would trust Him and not see the circumstances as too big."

And while I can't really identify with Caleb and Joshua because I don't believe that God has yet shown us where He's taking us, I do believe Brian is right. It would please God for me to Trust Him for our future, however uncertain it may be.

Over the past six months I've had to stop trusting God for the big engineering job for Brian and a big house for us to fill up with little Ramseys. And I've had to begin trusting that He and His provision for us, whatever that will be, will be enough. God does not owe me stability. I don't have a right to an American dream-ish life and thank God, because the Life He offers is so much better.