brownie

cakewalk

On September 6th, my sister Michelle is getting married! We threw a bridal shower for her on Saturday. The cake was done by The Bakery at Chester Springs and was delicious!

The color scheme for the wedding is balck and white, so the favors were black and white cookies done by Cookies By Design. I wrapped them in tulle.....

...and added a little personal message from the bride and groom.

Here is the fam, from left to right: Denise, Mom, sister Michelle, sister Christine and sister by marriage (but sister nonetheless!) Kristin.

Michelle's married name will be Robinson. It is funny because that is my other sister Christine's married name. Their husbands are of no relation. :)

technical difficulties

My laptop is having internet issues, so I don't have anything to post today. Sorry. :(

temporary insanity

Elijah and I had a very interesting day yesterday. It began with a nice finger painting session outside in the gorgeous morning weather.

He sat at his little picnic table and finger painted for about a whole nanosecond.

Apparently art does not interest him when he could be.....

.....sitting the grass half naked.....or....

....kissing an apple from our apple tree.....

So after we played outside and cleaned up what little mess we made, I put Eli in the bath. Even though he did not get much paint on his body because he lost interest pretty quickly, he did manage to rub the paint in his hair.

So we napped (he did, I worked), had lunch, went to a friend's house and played, came home and started dinner. Eli and I were playing football in the family room when we heard Daddy come home and begin to come up the stairs. At first I saw something shiny on this big object he was holding....then I realized what it was and exclaimed "Oh my goodness!" while Eli exclaimed louder than me "DRUMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Chad went to Goodwill and found a kids' drum set for a whopping $12! Of course Chad, never willing to pass up a good buy and the utter and complete happiness of his son, bought it right away. It is missing a stand and the cymbal doesn't work very well, but it is perfect for a child that will probably bang it to the ground anyway.

Elijah was so excited and started banging away as soon as Chad could give him the drumsticks.

Look at the serious face....he is really concentrating on honing his craft.

And of course Eli wanted Daddy to join in and Daddy happily obliged. In fact he had bought 2 sets of drumsticks. Daddy knew he was going to have some fun with this gift too! :)

There is the smile I know and love!

How sweet is my husband! He also saw a jogging stroller at Goodwill for $20 bucks and bought it for me to jog with Eli! So apparently the Goodwill in Chadds Ford has some really cool stuff in it! :)

And this is what happened when it was time to go to say night-night to the drums and go to bed.......poor kid. This morning, as I type this, he is banging away on his new drums. We need to have a talk with our neighbors and make sure the drums are not waking them up in the morning. Are we insane for doing this? Time will tell. But right now, I love watching Eli play his drums and love every minute of it!

worry

To say I struggle with worry is a vast understatement. It consumes me and sometimes can break me down into a bundle of nerves and frustration. The worry radiates from my mind into my body, causing me to grind my teeth and have stomach issues. Ulcers are an inevitability for me later in life, if not in the next few years. And what do I have to worry about, I say to myself. I am truly blessed with:

with a wonderful husband

a healthy and happy child (though tantrum prone....yikes)

the ability to be a stay at home mommy

a nice home

a strong marriage

a healthy body

a church that has everything we need

a family that loves me deeply

friends at every corner

Why worry, right? Good question. I would ask my mind that, but it is too busy worrying. And in the last few weeks, the worry has increased exponentially and has gripped me, like a vice around my chest, squeezing and squeezing until I cannot breathe.

At church yesterday, Calvary Chapel Chester Springs, Pastor Chris did a sermon in Luke, chapter 12, verses 22-34. Our pastor, I felt, was speaking directly to me. Little old me, sitting in the back, in case they buzzed us to come and settle an upset Elijah. Sitting between my husband and our friend Clifton, with every word our pastor said, tears were coming down my cheeks like waterfalls. It was amazing how God was speaking to me through our pastor. I am sure I am not the only one that struggles with worry, but I truly felt God wanted me to hear this sermon at the perfect time (of course when I was more gripped with worry than ever). If you want to hear the sermon (it is about 20 minutes long, I believe), click here. Pastor Chris said so many powerful things and here are only two of them:

1. The phrase "o ye of little faith" is not meant to chastise. Another way to put it is, "if you only knew". We don't know the plans God has for us. We could be crying out the Lord, asking him why He isn't giving us this one thing that we desire the most, when if we only knew, it is in His plan to give it to us the next day. We have to remember His timing is perfect.

2. Worry is a poor substitute for prayer. Once worry creeps in, we need to stop in our tracks and pray....pray it away. It can be a little prayer, a long prayer, anything to get us to focus on His plan and not ours.

I am a poor substitute for our pastor's God given words and God given talent in expressing them in such a powerful way. If you have a chance and struggle with worry, please listen to his sermon. It spoke to me so deeply and I hope it speaks to you.

peace

fruit

nourishment

juicy

bite

savor

healthy

We have a fledgling apple tree in our backyard. Now, I am not sure what season it is that the apples are supposed to appear, but we have three growing on the tree as I am writing this post. Here is a picture of one of them. They are little and green at this point and the apples have never really grown to full ripeness in the past. There is one low enough for Elijah to touch and he does pull on it, but I am trying to teach him to respect the fruit. :)

Our neighbors/good friends Ben and Eileen went to pick peaches over the weekend and lovingly offered us some to devour. There is nothing better than eating a room temperature, ripe, soft peach! If you haven't tried it, please do soon. So yummy!

And this picture is just a shot from yesterday. As I am looking at this picture, Eli looks more like a little boy than a toddler. He will be 2 years old in October. Just a proud mommy of a growing boy. :)

Have a wonderful weekend! Mine will be busy: my sister's bridal shower, a date night, in-laws coming over, church and a BBQ. But I should have lots of pictures and stories to share. :)