All I Want is You

Hmmm, on a less sappy note... my last two posts have said the word babies... That's problematic. Especially since Jason currently only allows me to say the word babies twice a day.

So in the spirit of avoiding above said topic... here is a video that has nothing to do with ... well you know... although i guess if we were getting technical the song is from the movie JUNO which is apparently about a girl having a baby... but I digress.. I dig this song. And I dig Fridays.

Last Night...

We ate cheddars.

Bought bead board to make picture frames.

Went for a dusk, 75 degree run.

Laid on the driveway and watched day fade to night.

Cuddled on the couch.

Ate chips and salsa.

Went to bed.

Read.

Prayed.

On the verge of sleep and I hear Jason. Singing.

Amazing Grace.

And say, I'm going to sing that to our babies.

Don't worry. We aren't having a baby.

....Yet.

But when we do he is going to sing to them.

Amazing Grace.

spring.

With her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the past. - Virginia Woolf

Transcending moments. I am a student of them. Moments when my heart cannot contain its level of contentment. Time pauses. My breath catches. Afraid to breathe, afraid if I do the ripples of my breath will interrupt the grip that heaven has on my heart in an earthly moment.

Yesterday afternoon in our backyard the perfect orange evening sunlight was dancing through the fence panels. You could literally smell spring. Peyton was running and playing. And there was Jason. My Jason. Just smiling at me.

My whole world. Content. Full.

Then it went away.

I could breathe, and I could move.. to go and hug my Jason.

These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive.

And I'm not sad to see them pass because these days those moments come often.

They become more and more full.

One day they'll have babies

Running barefeet and laughter.

And always my Jason.

Yard Crashers

Last weekend Jason and I decided that we were going to crash our yard. After we put our fence up in January our yard has looked huge and with the exception of a sprinting grey ghost (Peyton) fairly empty. So with big ideas in mind we hit Lowes up on Friday night and prepped for a yard overhaul.

We decided to: add a flower bed, make a firepit, and build 2 benches. Which quickly grew into: stone all (3) flower beds, extend one of the

existing flower beds, plant new bulbs, paint and distress the benches, and build some DIY rustic additions that would make the space our own.

That all equates to Jason and I working from dawn to dusk Saturday and Sunday night.

My amazing husband built 2 benches from all recycled materials. We had a leftover fence panel, 4x4s, and nails from our fence project which he turned into 2 benches that have removable tops and bracing inside them to store our pillows and bench top cushions. What a man!

I then painted the bench with watered down paint to give it the distressed look. We bought green bench top cushions and throw pillows to go on top and they should be in early next week. The benches are going in the corner you can see in the background of this picture.

To make the corner complete we both really wanted a firepit. We looked into building one, but it turns out firebricks are very expensive, but all the firepits at the local hardware stores were cheap and flimsy. So we found and ordered this bad boy:

GOOD OLE' ROCKY TOP, WHOO!

ROCKY TOP TENNESSEE!!!

We are unnecessarily excited about UT fire!

We then designed a new flower bed to go in the back left corner of our fence. Jason said we needed to stone it.. I agreed.. and then I found out that to do that you have to dig out all of the grass and level it, stone by tedious stone. It was a lot of work, but we got it done and it looks awesome. We are having dirt delivered today so we can fill it and then Nancy is going to help us design the flower layout this weekend. Also, part of the flowerbed is showing 3 stones high here, but we decided to stick with 2 because after the dirt is filled it will have the same effect.

I also raked up a good 4-5 wheel barrows full of pine straw which we are going to use to cover the dirt in the flower bed. I prefer mulch, but apparently in south Georgia mulch is not a good option.

It may not look like we accomplished a lot, but there a great deal of sweat and blood (poor Jason hammered his thumb) went into the weekend. The finishing touches will be put on it this weekend. The benches will be put in place and the cushions and firepit will polish off this corner.

And perhaps my favorite addition to the corner is going to be Mason Jar lanterns thatJason and I made last night. I bought Mason Jars for .99 at AC Moore and then

found bailing wirecovered in a rustic twine to create handle to hang the Mason Jars along the fence behind the benches. Then we put sand in them and tea candles in the jars. Now I have to find hooks that look similar to the ones in the picture that we used for inspiration and our corner will be complete!!

It was so nice to spend an entire weekend outside in the beautiful 70 degree weather with my husband. Jason is so smart and talented. He can look at a picture of something I want and build it. It is so nice to look around our house and yard and know how many updates we have done and how much money we have saved doing it all ourselves.

Also, so she doesn't feel left out... Peyton had a blast with all 3 of us being outside all weekend. She loves using the new benches as hurdles and smelling, but so far not eating the flowers.

Sorry this post was 2 years long.. but I am excited and wanted to share. After we finish I will take photos from a device other than my phone and share!

Set Free

I got it in my head a few months ago that I needed a new car. I started out wanting a fairly reasonably priced SUV and ended up setting my heart on my dream car, a Toyota 4Runner... which is not so reasonably priced. Jason and I talked about it, priced it, and I did what I do.. I became obsessed. I looked at them online, I picked up brochures, I found the best dealer in the area. We were set. Then earlier this week we received a call and someone wanted to buy my car and they were going to check with their credit union and we'd finalize the deal..

I instantly felt a great deal of unrest that just increased throughout the week. Finally last night the only way I could explain it to Jason was to continuously tell him I felt so stressed. We talked through it, prayed over it, and Jason told me no, this is not the right time.

Of course the way I explain it makes it sound so clean.. in reality I may have cried a little, I may have told Jason that sometimes I didn't want to give our money, I didn't want to share and I wanted to do what I wanted. To which I thought he would be so taken aback, but instead he told me he was encouraged by that because it meant that we may be beginning to give appropriately and obediently. (I married a wise and compassionate man!)

As soon as Jason told me no, and the decision was finalized, my heart felt as if binding had been released from it.It may just sound like a decision of whether or not to buy a car, or as if I am talking about a financial decision, but for us this decision was about obedience. We visited our friends Jay and Mandy this weekend. Jay preached on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and that because of their obedience they were thrown bound into a furnace, but they walked out of it, not even smelling like fire!! My earthly desires gave Satan a stronghold in my heart and I feel as if a war has been waging there all week. In our obedience God released my bindings, and I was immediately grateful.

This morning I received an email from the guy looking to buy the car saying that after careful consideration he had decided not to buy my car because he did not have a peace about it. I just smiled at the confirmation and peace God gave us.

Later I received a devotional from a friend that was nearly the exact same lesson that I had just learned. Confirmation and peace.

"Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul." - 1 Peter 2:11

"The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." - 1 John 2:17

"You have been set free from sin, and have become slaves to righteousness." - Romans 6:18