Birthday Babies

On Wednesday, we celebrated birthdays with our friends. There were so many of us who had babies at the same time last year that we decided it was easiest to just all get together once for a little birthday celebration. Getting all of the babies to sit still was no easy task, but here's the best we got:


from L to R: Jonah, Caroline, Pressly, Georgia, Will, and Emery (Ada Grace had already run off, so she didn't make it in the picture!)

We are so thankful to have friends who we can play with and who are going through similar stages in life. Happy Birthday little ones!

The Truth #9

Truth #9 from Lies Women Believe is the cross of Christ is sufficient to conquer my sinful flesh. Through Christ's death, I have been set free from the dominion and power of sin. I am no longer a slave to sin. When I do sin, I am yielding to my old master.

Romans has a lot to say about this topic. Romans 6: 6-7 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." Romans 6:14 "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 6:18 "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Romans 8: 1-2 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:9 "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you."

I must admit that this is a truth I've had to think about and struggle with a lot. I understand that my old self died and Christ made me new. But we all continue sinning while we're on this earth, even though we're filled with the Spirit. So why is that? And as we grow in our relationship with Christ, do we become less sinful overall (even though there's still sin there) or do we just replace previous sins with new ones? I keep thinking through this and I haven't really come up with an answer. The closest answer God has given me was through the sermon yesterday at church. Andy (our pastor) said that as we grow in the knowledge of God's holiness, the more we see sin in our lives. So maybe, even if I have less sin in my life as I grow in my relationship with Christ, what is there is magnified and I am more aware of it. It continually points me to my need for Christ so that I must rely on Him and not on myself. The answer to my question is probably that I should take my eyes off of myself and look at Him instead.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this? Any Scripture to help me walk through this?

The Truth #8

Truth #8 from Lies Women Believe is that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cover all my sin. There is no sin I have ever committed and will ever commit that is not covered by Jesus's blood. 1 John 1:7 "..and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

This doesn't diminish the significance of my sin. Instead, it should leave me broken and humble, desiring to obey Him and fear Him. Psalm 130: 3-4 "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sin, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared." Romans 3: 23-25 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood." This is such glorious news. Even though I am a sinner, Christ has already purified me.

Milwaukee, Part 2

The best thing about our trip to Milwaukee was Monday afternoon when Jay was one of the main speakers for the meeting. He and 2 guys from his office (Paul Foster and John Tripoli) did a panel discussion for 10,000 people. They did this talk when we were in San Antonio this past February for the regional meeting and they did such a great job that Northwestern asked them to do it again. The 3 of them are all young agents who are doing very well, so they had lots of advice and perspective to offer other agents. I am so proud of Jay!

They all look so serious. I think they were pretty nervous.

Jay on the big screen

Jay and his dad...2 of Northwestern's best!

Milwaukee, Part 1

We just returned from our trip to Milwaukee for Northwestern Mutual's annual meeting. We had a great trip. It is always so encouraging to be with our Northwestern family, and enjoying the cooler weather in Milwaukee was nice too. They do such a great job making this a family event.

On Sunday morning, we all participated in the Roots and Wings race. Marcy (Jay's mom) pushed Catherine and Will in the stroller for the 5k while Steve (Jay's dad), Jay, and I ran the 10k. Catherine was so excited about being in the race. She kept saying, "Faster, Mimi, faster." Baby Will, however, wanted to stop mid-race and eat some cheerios.

On Sunday night, they host a Garden party at the Milwaukee Zoo. They have tons of great food and entertainment and you can visit everything in the zoo. Catherine and Will especially enjoyed the carousel.

We took a little train ride around the zoo too. We thought we would see all of the animals on the train ride, but all we saw was a butterfly and a duck. Apparently the train ride is just to enjoy the train!

Catherine was looking ever so stylish with her sunglasses and name tag. She thought the name tags were a great accessory.

Probably the most fun kid's activity we did was go to a children's museum. Unfortunately I left my camera in the hotel that day, so I don't have any pictures. But it was a blast. They had a huge Mr. Potato Head exhibit, a grocery store, hospital, theater, backyard, post office, and other play activities. We were there for 2 1/2 hours and didn't play with everything. I think Greenville needs one of these. Maybe I'll work on that in my spare time!

Good Times, Good Friends

Just thought I'd share a few pics from recent play time with friends.


Catherine and Olivia reclining and reading a book together.

Will and Pressly played well together too. I think Will even inspired Pressly to crawl some.
Last week we went to the zoo with our good friend Eddie. It's difficult to get a picture of all 3 of them together, so this was about the best we could do. I think they're watching the alligators.
Catherine and Eddie--so sweet. He's totally fascinated by her, and she carries around pictures of him. It's precious.

A Happy Place

My kids love playing by the front door, just looking outside. I'm not sure if that means I need to take them outside more or if they just find it a happy place to be.

Will and Eli, just watching for birds or butterflies or the grass grow...I really don't know. But Will loves being with Eli these days. Earlier today he was even sharing his pacifier with him.

Perfect sunshine by the window for story time.

"Will she ever let me out of here?"

Catherine was playing like she was going to church (with my shoes on), so going out the front door was only logical.

The Truth #7

Truth #7 from Lies Women Believe is that God's grace is sufficient for me. I will never face a circumstance that exceeds God's grace for me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 reassures us "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Grace is such a complex gift to understand. When you accept God's grace and grow in the knowledge of his grace, you continually learn how much more and more you need it. Thankfully God has plenty of grace to give! And it is sufficient to deal with anything from my past, anything I'm currently struggling with, and anything I may deal with in the future. At times when I've heard about people dealing with very difficult circumstances (death of a child or spouse, terminal illness, etc) I've thought that I wouldn't be able to handle something like that. But as someone explained to me once, God gives you the measure of grace you need when you need it. Right now I don't need the grace to deal with those situations because that's not what God is giving me to trust Him with. I need the grace He's giving me to live my daily life right now. And that's encouraging to me.

So I'll leave you with this prayer of 2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17 "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

The Truth #6

Truth #6 from Lies Women Believe is that God doesn't make any mistakes. This can be hard to even comprehend because we (or at least me) make so many mistakes. How can God really never mess anything up? How can everything fulfill his perfect eternal purposes? It's beyond my comprehension, but He tells us that so I believe Him. Isaiah 46: 9-10 "I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me...I say 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."

People often doubt if God made mistakes about how He made them, why He made them, why He placed them in certain families/circumstances/locations/etc. But He reassures us that He has been our God before we were ever made. Psalm 139: 13-16 "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place; when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

So rest assured that God created you exactly the way He wanted to. He makes no mistakes with His creation. And if He lovingly created you, He will take care of you on this Earth and there will be no mistakes here either. Nothing can touch our lives that hasn't been filtered through His hands. As one author stated "God's will is exactly what we would choose if we knew what God knows."

Teething Pains

Will is working on a few new teeth coming in. They've been causing him a lot of discomfort the past few days. I've been trying to figure out what will help alleviate the pain a little (other than my regular default of Tylenol).

I gave him a biter biscuit the other day. He loved it, but as Catherine declared, Will was a "whole big mess" when he was done. (look at those blue eyes too!)
He also loves chewing on cool, wet washcloths.


Anybody else have suggestions of things to try (other than your normal teething toys; they don't seem to help)?

The Truth #5

The Truth #5 from Lies Women Believe is God can be trusted. He keeps his promises and He is faithful. He is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8). Trusting Him frees me to rest in Him and rely on Him to guide, instrust, protect, and comfort me.

Isaiah 28:16 "So this is what the Sovereign Lord says, "See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed." Isaiah 25:9 says "In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God, we trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." We can trust God for our salvation. He will not disappoint us. We can also trust Him to guide us. Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."

We can trust God because He has never failed his people. Go back and read Old Testament stories of Noah, David, Moses, Abraham, and Daniel (just to name a few). And Christ tells us to trust in Him also (John 14:1).

If I really believe the previous Truths (#1-4), then trusting God seems like it would be easy and obvious. I mean, after all, He is God. He is more powerful and stronger that I can imagine and He loves me. So why wouldn't I trust Him? I think I often don't trust because I can't see the road ahead of me fully laid out. He asks me to trust Him step by step and I want to hold the map. Or I'll think that He wants my best, but that it's going to be painful in the process, so in the midst of Him training me to be my "best" I get distracted and think I need to figure things out myself.

But I truly know that I can trust His promises. He has never failed me in the past. He isn't failing me now. He will never fail me. He wants me to "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." (Psalm 37:3-6)

The Truth #4

The Truth #4 from Lies Women Believe is that God is enough. Through Christ, I have everything I need for my peace and happiness. He is all that I need.

Psalm 23 says (and try not to think of a funeral when you read Psalm 23; it's really not about death) "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want." Psalm 73: 25 says "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you."

God is really all I need. I often think I need security and comfort from things of this world--my husband, children, health, friends, money, house, etc. But God is my shepherd. He knows what I need before I even ask and He will take care of me. I pray that I would believe that He is enough and not place my trust and hope in the things of this world.

Yeah for the Rain!

We were soooo excited to finally get some rain this weekend that we went outside and played in it! On Saturday morning, there was just a nice steady drizzle that was perfect for rolling down the hill, ring around the rosie, and chasing each other in the yard. We've also had a couple of good thunderstorms. So Yeah for the rain!


Jay and Catherine after a successful roll down the hill. Jay is striking the gymnastics pose; Catherine is just concerned about the dirt she got on her hands.

Happy wet family.

Even baby Will loved being outside in the rain. It felt so refreshing!

Update on Mama Belk

So far the news is promising for my grandmother. Although she did have the worst kind of stroke possible (I don't know what that's called or what's the worst about it), her test results yesterday were very encouraging. She is currently able to move her arms and legs some and talk a little bit. And she is able to swallow, which allowed her to actually eat a little bit last night. We have definitely seen God taking care of her as she has improved. And God was gracious enough to protect her with the timing of it all. She had the stroke at church where she was in the same room with a doctor, nurse, and emergency first responder. They knew what to do and how to immediately get her the help she needed. Had it occurred 15 mins later, she would have been home by herself and probably died. Thank you all for your prayers. I'll keep you updated.

Tonight

Tonight my grandmother (Mama Belk, my mom's mom) had a stroke while at church. She's currently in Spartanburg and we still aren't sure how bad things are. Her blood pressure is around 200+/150+, crazy high. She can move her legs some but isn't really able to talk right now. Please keep her in your prayers. The next few hours and days will be critical. I'm hopeful to go see her tomorrow, depending upon her condition and if I can figure out a way to get there with/without kids.

So I've been sitting here for the past 3 hours waiting on phone calls from my sisters with updates about what is going on . I found a really cool blog to read. It's http://stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com/ But be forewarned, it can be addictive to read. I may have read it for 3 hours even if I didn't have a reason to stay up.

About 45 minutes ago while I was sitting here reading this blog, I noticed something move on the computer desk out of the corner of my eye. At first I just ignored it, but then I saw a huge roach crawl by!! Okay, I know I love biology and I'm not supposed to be intimidated, but roaches totally freak me out. Especially in my house! (thank goodness the Gregory Pest guy is already scheduled to come tomorrow.) So I just watch this thing crawl around for a few minutes. I know I need to catch it; I couldn't possibly just go down the hall and go to sleep knowing there was a roach in the house. But I couldn't figure out how to catch it without touching it. And those little buggers are fast too. So I finally got an old plastic cup and decided to trap it. After about 10 minutes of trying, I caught it. I slid a notebook under the cup and lovingly returned the roach outdoors. I went and got the Lysol and sprayed down all surfaces I had seen the roach touch and then some. I then sat down to finish reading the paragraph on this fantastic blog when suddenly I saw that stupid roach again. I only thought I had it earlier. In my attempt to not touch it, I didn't really check to make sure it was in the cup. So now the roach was getting a little testy and started flying around some. So I took the desperate measure I learned from my college roommate Jill whenever a spider would happen to find its way into our room....I sprayed it down with Lysol. At first it didn't slow it down, so I was just running across the room spraying the floor and wall, but finally enough Lysol go to it that it slowed down and I put a cup over it. It's still over there on the floor under the cup. I don't know how to get it without having to touch it.

Okay, I realize it's late, but it's been a long night and sometimes these things seem funnier when you're tired. You probably had no interest in reading about any of this, except maybe my grandmother. Please do pray for her. I'll keep you updated.

9 months old

Will is 9 months old! (officially yesterday, on the 1st) I know it's the cliche thing to say, but I really can't believe he's growing so fast. I feel like he was just born and now he's a little man. For his 9 month check-up today, he weighed in at 21lbs 12oz and was 28 inches long. (for the record, Catherine still only weighs 24.5lbs, so Will is quickly catching up and will probably weigh more than his sister by his 1st birthday.)






Will's new hobby now that he can crawl is getting into everything. He loves the books on the bookshelf. His favorite to pull down and look at it Charles Dickens! He also really enjoys Eli's (the dog) water bowl and plate, so poor Eli only gets to eat or drink when Will is asleep.
Two little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed."


My little monkey got his first boo-boo on Monday. He fell off Catherine's bed head first onto the wood floor. It scared me pretty badly, but thankfully all he had was a bruise on his forehead and red spot on his eye. The doctor said that as long as there's no loss of consciousness, vomiting, and his eyes still dilate properly, he should be fine.
Okay, this has nothing to do with Will being 9 months old, but Catherine's hair is finally long enough to put in pig tails. And I love it. I think it's the most adorable thing ever. So I had to share it too. She especially loves to look at her shadow on the ground and see her pigtails. And she's appreciating that it keeps her hair from blowing in her face when the wind blows. Too cute!

Update: About 2 hours after I posted this, Will accomplished another milestone. He pulled himself all the way up and was just standing, holding on to the bathtub! He then did it 3 or 4 more times this afternoon, so it wasn't just a fluke. Catherine was so excited. She cheered and clapped and declared that Will is ready to learn to walk. Since he weighs almost 22 lbs, I agree!