Been Too Long!

May is almost over here in Central Indiana, and we are so glad the weather has finally warmed up!  After having a Polar Vortex bring negative temperatures throughout January and February, March brought normal winter temperatures!  We even experienced a 70* day in Mid March!  The kids sure enjoyed the afternoon playing outside at the park!  Nearly every day since then, Jonas has asked me if we can "Go play on the slides and swings today?"  That boy loves to be outside, and I am so excited for him to be able to run and play this summer with little sister in tow. 

Our winter was relatively uneventful; lots of snow, lots of cold weather, and lots of colds throughout our home.  But the good news is that we survived and spring is officially here now! 

Joelle is now 16 months old and is turning into a little girl much quicker than I thought she would!  She walks everywhere now, and is in the "don't hold my hand" phase, but she still loves her momma snuggles!  She is still my little girl, and I am having a hard time letting her grow up!  She is learning new words every day.  Her most recent fascination is eyes.  Whenever I pick her up, she excitedly says "eye" and then proceeds to poke me in the eye.  I am starting to anticipate it, so not every time does she in fact poke my eye! 

Jonas is potty training now, and I am hoping that soon I can use the phrase "potty trained" and his name in the same sentence!  He is doing great, and I am so impressed with his progress over the past 3 weeks.  He is speaking in full sentences, and loves to play with toys and play outside at the park.  He has his troublesome days, like any 2 1/2 year old does, but generally, he is a sweet boy with lots of hugs and kisses waiting.  He doesn't always like to be called "Jo-jo" anymore, but rather, he tells me "no, momma, my name is Jonas." On the flip-side, though, he insists on calling his little sister Joelly-Belly.  She doesn't  seem to mind yet, but we will see how long that lasts! 

March brought some unexpected surprises to us, as Steve was in the hospital for a while.  He is healing, though, and his health has improved greatly since then.  The simplest way for me to explain what happened is to say that Steve's auto-immune disease relapsed, as it has in the past.  He was hospitalized with a low red blood cell count, until it was closer to the normal range and he was feeling better.  It has been a slower recovery than normal for him, but we are just glad that he is getting health again!  Even through the unexpected medical expenses, we are able to see God's hand in our lives as he continues to prove that he will take care of us.  For those of you who were aware of Steve's health concerns and have been praying for us, we are grateful for your love and support through everything.  It means so much to us to have our family and friends supporting us and praying for us through the challenges that are thrown our way. 

April was our recovery month as Steve and I got used to living in the same house again.  You would never think that it would take adjustment, but I guess 2 weeks apart will do that to you a bit!  Even Jonas continued to ask if we were going to go visit daddy in the hospital weeks after his discharge.  It is wonderful to have him home and healthy! 

May has been a blast, playing outside throughout the weeks and enjoying the beautiful weather.  Jonas likes to pick the park that we visit, and his favorites are the "Scoop-n-dump Park" and the "Spinny Spinny Park", and yes, they are named after specific toys you can play with at each park!  I love to watch his imagination develop!  Joelle is even able to play on the playground without me constantly being afraid that she will dive off of the very high open edges!  Both kids love to swing, slide, climb, swim, run, throw, kick, and basically anything else exciting and active! 

Although we have endured more challenges than we thought we would over the past few months, one thing we are sure about is that God is God and He is in control.  We continue to rely on Him for our Strength and Patience.  Thank you again for your continued prayers for Steve's recovery and for our family! 

Pinterest Perfection

I LOVE looking around on the popular new(ish??) website Pinterest.  There are so many (and I mean, way too many) ideas and projects and perfect examples of what life could be.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out Pinterest, then you really should!  It's a great website! 

But there is this one problem. 


Almost EVERY picture, post, idea, project, or anything to the sort looks 1000000% perfect, and let me tell you, life isn't perfect! 

I would love my home to look like this: 

 

 

But usually, it looks like this: 

And ya know what?  I'm OK with it! And the reason I'm ok with a crazy house is because there are more important things than keeping your house in perfect pinterest organization.

Sharing the Joy of the Lord with our kids

I have never experienced so much Joy from one child, but Jonas is just exploding with Joy!  Teaching him about God and showing him how to love his little sister and share toys with her are much more important right now than teaching him to pick up his toys and put them back in the way that I  want them to be.  Responsibility and listening skills are important, but sometimes they aren't the most important thing in our day-to-day lives. 

 

 

 

Another incredibly important thing that we sometimes forget about is that a good Marriage takes a lot of work!  And sometimes you have to put off the housework to nurture your marriage.  When Steve and I got married nearly 5 years ago, I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that it took a lot of work to keep your marriage alive!  And let me tell you, that is one thing that I am completely committed to doing!  I will always put our marriage in front of housework.  And sometime, that means that I need to clean up the house! HA!  I can show my husband that I love him by cleaning our home and keeping up with the housework. 

 

 

Most importantly, I need to keep my Lord and Savior as number 1 in my life.  He needs to come first in every thought, every moment, and every decision of my life.  This is something that I will be working towards for the rest of my life!  And through God's grace, may I grow closer to Him every day! 

 

For all of you other ladies, mom's, and wives out there reading this post, just remember that Pinterest Perfection may be attainable, but is it really the most important thing in life?