The next week (this past week) was Thanksgiving, when we traveled to Winston-Salem to eat turkey with all of the trimmings and way too many desserts. My sister, Bethany, and our cousin Marisa went with me to WalMart at midnight to get some of their Black Friday deals. This was only the second time I had played the crazy shopper game, and it was so much fun. I purchased number seven of only seven Barbie jeeps for a great price, and I got my new favorite appliance–a steam mop–originally $56, purchased for $36! We were back at Bethany’s by 1:00 a.m., so for the short amount of time we spent shopping, we did pretty well. (By the way, after getting home and looking at the Jeep, we realized that it would be a little small for our girl, so we took it back and improvised…details coming at Christmas!)

This coming Wednesday is Calli’s fourth birthday, and we have been planning a Fancy Nancy “soiree” for months now! She fell in love (as did I) with the lovable storybook character when we read her first book, and we have not been able to leave the library once since then without at least one Fancy Nancy book in our bag. So, fancy Calli will be having her very own get-together with her dearest girl friends this Saturday. No boys were invited, not because we didn’t want boys there, but because we thought they would probably rather be anywhere else than at a pink and purple (fuchsia) party with boas, wings, tutus, pinkies up, and all the rest!

She’s actually having her party on my birthday, and Michael’s is the following day. I suppose we will combine our celebrations and eat leftover Nancy cake rather than have three separate cakes! After that, we have our anniversary, all of the other festivities that December brings, and Christmas itself! At this rate, we’ll be flat broke and overweight by January!

Here’s some recent pics of my kiddies during this year’s summertime activities, some of which have turned into annual traditions for our little family of four!

Calli with her bestie, Brockman, at the Landrum Library Parade

My Yankee Doodle Sweethearts

So, at the beginning of this week, a local contractor and his son began digging away until they reached the foundation of the house to begin repairing and resealing the footings to keep the rain from coming into our basement. I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect this.

It’s such a huge undertaking! Calli has enjoyed watching the backhoe and seeing the large mounds of dirt, roots, and concrete in our front yard. Even John David seems to be enjoying the dirt!

I am reminded that this is what God has to do with me sometimes. Over time my heart needs repair so that the enemy cannot come in and bombard me with his darts. God has to strip away all of the old seals that I have used to cover up the weak areas and the sin in my life, and then seals it with His gracefulness, His righteousness, His forgiveness. He then restores me and makes me whole, but the process is often messy. I am so glad He is patient and long-suffering with me. Lord, make me usable for Your purposes all the way down to the footings!

As I walked away to rock him to sleep, I wondered to myself about their future together as siblings. I wonder if they will be friends always. I know they will love each other. I have prayed that they will always be close and kind to one another. I want them to take up for the other and to protect the other from harm. Then, when they become teenagers and begin taking an interest in the opposite sex, I wonder how they will deal with the each other? Will they be heartbroken because this means that they no longer hold the position in each other’s hearts as most loved? For now, she loves him immensely and, though he is young, he already admires her.

Lord, may it always be so. Help them to protect one another and genuinely love each other always.

Now I know that a pastor’s wife is supposed to have jumped right up the first time, even without being beckoned, but I’m not a picture of perfection…yet. I did get up and read my Bible. I asked Him to show me what He had for me today, and here are the highlights from my reading in John 2-3:

Believe God’s Word or trust in what the Lord has said even without a sign or a miracle. People came to Jesus asking Him what kind of sign He could give them or what kind of miracle He could perform to prove who He was. The Bible tells us that we are blessed when we believe without seeing. I need to take God at His word.

Lift up Jesus in all that I do and say. John the Baptist, when he was repeatedly questioned by people, always responded by telling them that he was only the forerunner of the Son of God, sent to point others toward Him. Jesus said that He must be lifted up so that people can see Him and come to know him. John the Baptist also said that we must become less so that He becomes greater still.

Think heavenly-minded, not earthly-minded. The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant when he told them to tear down the temple and that he would rebuild it in three days until after he rose from the grave. They were thinking in earthly terms. Also, when Nicodemus (a highly educated man–educated in the Scriptures) came to Jesus, and He told him that he must be born again, Nicodemus took him literally, asking how that was possible to be born a second time from his mother’s womb. He was thinking in earthly terms.

And then I read a Proverb for the day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so I try to read one-a-day. It’s funny how you can read the same thing more than once and get a totally different emphasis out of what you read. This is what stood out to me today:

Be a wise person—a person who fears the Lord. Proverbs 23 says that we as parents can delight in a wise child. The whole book of Proverbs talks about people in categories (wise, foolish, mocking, and simple), and a wise person is one who fears the Lord. So, I need to pray for my children to be wise children as I, with God’s strength, am an example of fearing the Lord. [Sidebar:  All my life I have wanted to be wise, even when I was a very young child, so when I first read that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10), I had to find out what that meant. I have found (especially in Proverbs) that it means to hate evil, to shun evil, to resist evil, and to do good, to be drawn to godly things rather than things of this world or the devil, to pursue peace (Psalm34:14; Proverbs 8:13). So, in my mind when I hear the words, "fear the Lord," I picture myself running away from evilness and toward peacefulness.]

Do not be allured by extravagance and by those who are materialistic. Need I say more? I think that it is always a struggle for me not to compare myself and the things I have to others’. I just need to be content with what I have and with who I am in Christ.

I don’t write these things as if I am an expert on the Bible, but I thought that maybe I’m not the only one who God wanted to share this with today. He is precious, and His ways are not our ways, so if this helps one person today, then all the praise goes back to Him. Thank you Lord for loving me enough to spend time with me today and to reveal a little more of Yourself! You are an awesome, loving Father!

A couple of weeks ago, we realized that she has some imaginary friends. She has two boys and two girls that are her “children.” According to her they are very good listeners and they are sweet. She says there are five of them, but she says there are two Brockmans and two Isabellas (named for two of her friends from church)…so we only count four. Many times she says that a group of things or people is five when it’s just a small group, so that may be what’s going on with her friends. She takes them places with her, and they eat with us some nights at the table.

This week Calli said some very cute things that are noteworthy. One is this: “I love the breeze in my hair…and in my mouth.” We felt the first signs of fall this week, and as we were walking to the car one day, she shook out her hair as she made this statement…then she licked the air.

A few nights ago she was sitting in my lap talking (stalling before she reluctantly went off to bed). She said, “One day when I get a little bit bigger, I maybe can marry you…or maybe my Dad.” I asked her what she thought her Dad would say about that, and she said that he would smile. “He would think that is pretty funny.”

I don’t know if it’s because of the soon-to-be new baby or what, but she has been extra clingy. I haven’t pushed her to do anything that she doesn’t want to do, mainly because I am realizing that I only have a few days with her alone. From November on it’ll be the two of us plus a baby boy. I’m excited about John David, and I know he’ll add so much to our family, but I am going to miss having my one-on-one time with my Calli girl.

I had everything lined up when we were expecting Calli, but with this pregnancy, I’ve been so different. I am changing my craft room into John David’s nursery, and I am going about it so slowly. Michael has a week off in a couple of weeks, and I think he’s going to do all of the heavy lifting then. I would LOVE to have the bedding picked out and the paint purchased by then, but I’m having a hard time deciding on his bedding. It’s so much fun to have these decisions, but I’m hesitant about this…I know nothing about boys!! Plus, I want to pick out something that I’m not going to be tired of when he’s 18 months old.

Calli is looking forward to having a new baby so much! We are putting a positive spin on everything that happens and trying to involve her in the decisions we make. Lots of people have told us that she’ll be jealous, and she has been a little more clingy (wants her pacifiers, wants to be rocked, etc.) lately, but I don’t ever remember being jealous of any of my four siblings when they were born…I was just happy to have a baby in the house. That’s how I intend to approach things with Calli. We’ll have our special time together, and Michael will be home from school a lot during the holidays, so it should be a fun transition with her. I’m praying that God will form a strong bond between the two of them, and that He will give her a supernatural love for her brother. I’m looking forward to seeing Him answer this prayer.

Anyway, I hope to add updates on our room changes. Calli’s gonna get a new bed–a real big girl bed–and our office is changing. All-in-all we’re converting three rooms! It should be tons of work and lots of fun!! HAHA! So glad we have room for our growing family. God is good!

Michael and I went in for our first ultrasound of baby number two Thursday morning.  He (we’re calling him “he” because Calli says that it’s going to be a boy) is less than 1 cm and already has a strong heartbeat! Isn’t that miraculous?!? We saw his sweet little heart beating and even got to hear it for a short while on the ultrasound! Calli is super excited to have a live doll! She rehearses what we’re going to do with her baby every night before she goes to sleep. So sweet! Pray with us that this baby will be strong and healthy… and that I will not continue to have morning sickness after my first trimester!! He’ll be 8 weeks in utero this coming Wednesday, and he’s due on Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Easter everyone!

So, she came over the next week, took measurements, took her “before” photos, and decided that while since we were going to redo the living room, we should also do the kitchen and dining room!!  I bought new curtains the next week, Michael painted the walls the week after that, and then we sort of slowed down. A couple of weeks later we hung the new curtains (after, I’m sad to say, we had had a sheet over the windows because he took down all the valences and rods to paint), and a couple more still Tracey came over to help me repaint a shelf and our TV console.

We took a break from the living room for a month or so to turn Calli’s room from a nursery into a “big girl” room. That took us almost all of November and December combined, and it was supposed to be completed by her birthday (the first day of Dec.). I am surprised that Michael didn’t kill me during that time. He would come home every day from work and paint from suppertime until well-past bedtime while I occupied Calli. All of her toys and clothes moved to our bedroom during that time AND, after choosing semi-gloss Tiffany-box blue with large, multicolored polka dots and hating it (loathing it), I decided I just wanted a flat purple paint on the walls. Like I said, I’m surprised I’m still living. He didn’t complain one bit…I think he secretly hated the awful blue with polka dots worse than I did. So, we finally got the paint up–purple walls, pink closet, bought some new shelves, added wooden letters to the wall, and converted her crib into a new bed with “big girl” bedding. I do have a confession to make, though. I bought fabric for her curtains (she has two windows), and I have yet to sew them or put them up. I think the neighbors must think she has a beach-themed room because for now there are beach towels thrown over her curtain rods…

I am a bad mother.

Okay, so I have been looking for an affordable area rug and a sofa with a chaise (so that I don’t block my beautiful view from the front window of the horse pasture across the road) since September!! Last week, I walked into Pier1 to buy (the last two) curtains for my dining room windows because they were FINALLY on sale after five months, and came out with an $80 rug that had been $320!! Who does my God love more than me?? This one purchase, and perhaps the beginning of springtime, has spurred me to jump back into my redecorating project!! I am going to try to complete the living room–sofa and all–by next Friday (April 2). Don’t judge me if it’s a week or two later, but a girl like me has got to set goals or nothin’ gets done!

The funny thing about all of this is that I have learned that I truly, truly love to repurpose furniture. I have been going to thrift stores and shopping around in my own home to look for ways to reuse something! I have a plan for each room in our home now! I’ll try to continue posting updates and photos. First the living room, then the dining room, kitchen, office/study, craft room, and finally our bedroom. BTW, the ladies at our church completely gutted, designed, and decorated our two bathrooms before we moved in, so at least I have a nice place to powder my nose!

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I’d really like to plant a couple of gardens (vegetable & floral) this spring too! ‘Think I’d better just take it one step at a time!