what i've learned lately

who's this guy? oh. he's my husband. yeah. i know. i write about our kids most of the time. i write about church some of the time. i don't write about him much. maybe i should. he's kind of an alright guy. so i guess i'll start.

i am blessed to watch him grow in Christ day by day. i am blessed to stand by his side when he does amazing things for other people. i am blessed to help him up when he falls. i am blessed to walk along side of him when things are just going along. i am blessed to be his wife. i am blessed to raise our children along side of him. i am blessed to be a teacher to him. and i am blessed to have him teach me. see. this is my husband, and he is a blessing. 

now. if you don't know me, you may be thinking i have the perfect husband and marriage. (i'm thinking "why is someone who doesn't know me reading my blog") if you do know me, you may be thinking 'what the heck, i know you guys don't have it all together'. sadly per the world, the latter is right. and proudly to our faith, the latter is right. there is no perfect husband (or wife even though we think we are) and there is no perfect marriage. per the world, there are 'really bad marriages and really bad husbands' though, but per our God - we are all kinda sucky, but forgiven and redeemed and offered grace. 

see, lately, i have learned a lot about marriage and God and my role and our direction. 1 Peter says to win him over by my godly ways (Annie version). it doesn't say to be a loud wife who demands change. a friend told me to trust God to protect me, to protect our children - the world tells me to get out as soon as it 'gets too bad'. and there were times - too recently times i was ready to follow that worldly answer. no, i would never leave my husband; God already gave me that answer many years ago - he hates divorce. he forgives divorce, but he hates it and therefore i won't do that. but the world had be convinced that if my husband was doing this, or that, i could 'protect myself' and walk away until it was 'good enough for me'. my husband isn't a bad guy, he makes poor choices some times. but guess what...so do i. 

“Whoever would love life

    and see good days

must keep their tongue from evil

    and their lips from deceitful speech.

They must turn from evil and do good;

    they must seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

    and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

1 Peter 3:10-12

want to know how i read that? well, i read that as if i love this life Christ gave me and want good days, be nice, speak nice, do nice. He (Christ) will hear my prayers. if that prayer is for a better marriage, a husband seeking God, health...it doesn't matter; he hears those of the righteous. i have been reminded and shown scripture of prayers of the righteous being answered over the past few months. some times it speaks louder than others but this time is spoke pretty loud. to love my husband. truly love him - the bible calls for this too...i know, craziness. and to speak good and do good. seek peace and pursue it. wow. not seek peace - oh there it is, hope it comes my way. but pursue it - go after it. and a biggie...not if - this verse, nor any other say if. that means (tying it all together here) that the world is wrong. i don't get to choose what is good enough to make me do right. God tells me to do right and seek right no matter what. and that's what i will do. from big to small. from worldly wrong to godly wrong. from today to tomorrow. i love my husband and my God. and i must say, it's kinda an awesome feeling. now, pray for me to stay that way because we all know, it isn't always easy.

a plus? he's kinda hot :-)

time to get back to it...hopefully

it is so hard to blog these days. why? because technology has taken over our lives! we have photo stream, instagram, a blog, texting, email...are any of these pictures new to people...nope. but all those things will eventually go away i'm sure. all those will become outdated and we will move on. so i must blog and print a book so one day the kids can have some stinkin' pictures to go with their memories! the kids are growing up so fast it seems so we try to enjoy our time the best we can. we have had a crazy mild winter so we hit the park in our one day to be home subdivision up on cave springs the other day. it is awesome, austin can already go all over it and only makes me gasp about ten times each hour as he gets way too close to the edge up high. they have a blast though. we have come to learn that as long as he is outside, he is content. bo passed away last week which was crazy hard on paul, an emotional lesson for courtney and even sad at times for me. i still will look out and look for him when i do dishes. on the positive side of that; the kids (mainly austin) can now go outback freely with the lack of dog poo and food as temptations. he literally began moving to the backyard the day we left the door open for him. he would take a truck out back, play for a minute or two, head back inside, say 'outside' and pick up something else and start all over again. i do believe we have one point two million toys in the backyard at this moment in time. also a positive - we now have one point two million less toys in the house at this point. always thinking positive, right? courtney is doing awesome in kindergarten; we still love the choice we made to do half school half homeschool as we really enjoy our days together and i love helping her learn and watching her grow and improve. it amazes me what she is already learning about and how fast she picks things up. sometimes i feel like i should teach her everything now while she is able to learn so fast! austin is a babbling mess. he is all boy all the time - well, unless he's in a mommy mode which is always nice. he talks up a storm - says soooo many words. we are officially in the "my family understands everything I say and everyone else gives me that "huh" look" phase. he says so many things i don't think i can remember them all...we have started teaching him abc's and 123's. i say a, he says b. i say one, he says two. that is exactly what courtney used to do! i love how he does things she used to that makes me remember her at that age. he has started saying i love you (eh too) and calls us mommy and daddy now which melts out hearts. the first day he called paul daddy we both literally teared up. i think it was the most precious moment with him yet. we sure are blessed and thankful for these little ones!