For my Mother-in-law, who says I've obviously been busy lately. :)

You know the problem with getting out of synch with regular blogging? Writing that next post. I have lots of ideas, but not all of them want to come out just yet. I know that the next post is not usually my favorite, so I don't want to "waste" any good ideas if I'm not going to write them well. But I just need to get going again. I thought about giving a theme to certain days. I have a friend who does Mundane Mondays, and another who does the Tuesday Ten, and yet another who does Friday Flibbertijibbits. I thought, "Weirded-Out Wednesdays? Thesaurus Thursdays? Sappy Saturdays?" Yeah. I thought it was ridiculous, too.

So here it is. My regular ol', one time "Getting back into the Groove" post.



There have been a few things I've enjoyed lately that I wanted to share.

1. My Monday night life group. We're watching DVDs based on the book "Culture of Honor" by Danny Silk. And they are changing my life. The first night I pulled one point out of his message and chewed, and chewed, and chewed it to bits. I will never be the same after realizing I had this lie buried inside me. Maybe that will be in a future post. :)

2. Heaven is for Real. You've probably seen this book in Wal-Mart. My friend, Lisa, loaned me her copy. She did this because a.) she is a giver, and b.) she knows I have a need to read good books, and she helps me out with that whenever she can. It's a quality I love about her!
I think this book is lovely. I don't want to give anything away, because I want you to read it for yourself. All I will say, is that after reading this book I think, "Why on earth do we hold onto life so hard? Shouldn't we all have a death wish so we can hurry up and get to heaven?" Ok, that's a little exaggerated. A little. I know why I love my life, and I'm sure you love yours. Truly. But heaven sounds so, so good to me now. And this book left me walking around the house singing to my girls, "Heaven is a wonderful place! (I wanna go there!)"

3. Sandra Boynton and Mo Willems. Have I ever mentioned how much I love children's books? These are two of my favorite kids' authors. She writes board books like this one and this one, and he writes the Elephant & Piggie books which I love and tell EVERYONE about. We have several books in our homes with these two names on the front.

4. This cd. (Oh, come on! You know I had to go there!)

What have you been enjoying lately?

Tips for a better (post baby) life.

Maureen is seven months old today, but I still consider myself a new mommy (again). I've learned out some things about myself this time that I didn't know before, or had forgotten. I decided to post them for any of my new mommy friends out there, but also for myself. I figured that if I wrote them all down in one place, I'd have a better chance of keeping them fresh in my mind for easy reference.

1. Eat protein. This has become kind of a big one for me lately. If I don't snack regularly, or don't eat protein, I can feel my blood sugar drop. I get shaky, weak, tired, and if I run for too much longer like that, I'm like a car trying to run without gasoline. Once I do eat, my body is still toast for a few hours. So I try to eat at regular times, or eat early if I know I'm going to be out somewhere during snack time.

2. It's still okay to sleep. My friend Charity posted about getting up before her kids and how being ready for the day helped her mood. I totally agree, and at the time I also had been trying to wake up at 6 every morning to get ready before my girls got up. But my routine hit a big snag. When Maureen started sleeping through the night, my big girls started waking up. At first it was just sickness, or waking up and not being able to put themselves back to sleep. But now Elsie wakes up almost every night to use the bathroom. And while I'm grateful that she's using the toilet . . . you get the idea. It's a little rough. And it's been seven months. I don't even set my alarm anymore, except on Sundays. And sometimes I still nap in the afternoon. And for right now, I'm cool with that.

3. Remember how some days you just can't take yourself too seriously? Well, some days you just can't take yourself too seriously. Dude. There's still a lot of hormones going on in there.

4. Friends . . . are your friends. Lack of sleep, hormones, and other random variables all can all add up to bogged down thinking for me. And being with friends is like opening up a window in a stuffy room. Laughing, hearing different perspectives, getting outside my own little bubble -- all these things help me a lot even if we still have all our children with us when we get together.

5. And sometimes it's okay to be by yourself, too. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so that last one about friends is key for me, but alone time is good too. It's not always easy, and it's not always feasible to have a large chunk of time (especially when the babies are tiny) but I think every little bit helps. A trip to the library where you pick from the big people section, a quick run to the store without unloading car seats, a trip to your favorite ice cream shoppe. On really hard days I lock the doors when I go to the bathroom. And sometimes those few minutes make all the difference.

Anything I forgot? I'd love to hear your advice!

Day Five

Hurray for us! I wish I could throw us all a big party to celebrate! Truly, you guys are all awesome.
Here's my song 5:


Til I Know

Lord You said nothing could separate me from
Your passionate tender heart, the kindness of Your love

And I long to search for You
How I long to search for You

Chorus:
I wanna know again the fountain of Your blood that washes me
Wanna dream in the freedom of Your truth
I wanna see You wave Your banner over me, whose name is love
Til I know

Bridge:
Wanna know how high
Wanna know how deep
Wanna know how rich
Wanna know how sweet
Your love
Jesus, Your love

Day Four

Today Jason and I decided to write a song together. Enjoy!

Never be the Same

Never said it would be easy
But You'd make the crooked paths straight
And You said there would be trials
But You'd make a way
You'd make a way

Here in this moment, I don't know what to do
So I'm holding on to this hope I have in You

I will run to You
(You never change)
I will hide myself in You
(You're the safest place)
Your love has chased the fear away
I'll never be the same

Day Three

If you know me at all, you may have seen this coming . . . a praise song for kids! This idea was inspired by Elsie, who actually sang/shout out, "Turn around, turn around, jump, jump, jump!" a few days ago. Here it is:

Turn Around (Jump Jump Jump For You)

I believe that You are good all the time
I can count on Your love
I've heard You say your dreams for me are so, so big
I'm not afraid, You live in me

When I think about my God it
Makes me want to

Turn around, turn around and jump, jump, jump for joy
Wanna clap, clap, clap and shout Your name out loud
Wave my hands in the air and do a crazy dance
Turn around, turn around and jump, jump, jump for You

When I think about my God
When I think of who You are
When I think about my God it
Makes me want to

Day Two

Here's my song for today:

Happy Birthday Me (I'm getting older)

Day One

I'm doing a 5in5 hosted by my friend, Dan. Five songs in five days, Baby! Here's song one.

Believe

Abraham decided he would trust You
Even though he had no earthly reason
Against all hope, in hope he believed
And received a promise greater than he'd seen

Lord I wanna believe
Even when I don't have answers
I wanna believe
Though I can't see it today
Wanna hold fast to hope
'Cause I know that You are faithful
Wanna believe for things
Greater than I've seen