New baby

Somebody out there just had a heart attack thinking I was making some sort of announcement!

There are not to be any new babies from this woman...just to be clear!

This past weekend was my sister-in-laws due date. We all know the actual date means nothing, but somehow, the days after that due date seem to drag on forever! At this point you are about ready to punch the next person that says, "You haven't had that baby yet?"

I am mourning the fact that we are thousands of miles away from them and I will not have the opportunity to love on my sweet sister (I'd rather call her my sister than sister-in-law...she really is a sister anyway!), make her lunch, bring her tea, change babies diapers, do laundry...it just makes my heart ache!

The distance from family members (and the never ending cold and snow) makes me feel very isolated. One thing I have tried is skype. We successfully chatted with some family at Christmas, but otherwise we seem to miss people when they are on. I'm sure the time difference has something to do with that too.

One of my goals for this year was to pick a family member every week and pray for them. I made little cards for each member and put them in a basket. For the past two weeks (this being the beginning of week two) I have randomly selected one. I put a picture of them as my desktop wallpaper and pray for them every time I sit at my computer (which is about 20 times a day!!!!). In just that short of a time it has really touched my heart. However, it has also caused a bit of the pity party. the family members that I have been praying for so far like far away, and the possibility of them visiting us or us visiting them is pretty slim.

So the blessing of having a nation and a time that allows us to travel and move and see amazing places comes with the curse of being far away and not able to just "pop over" for dessert or to hold a fussy baby for a new mommy.

How do you makes the miles seem smaller and connect with family????

Relational Goals

So this one is all about people! Life would be easier without other people, but it sure would be boring!!


One thing I have learned over the many moons of my life (just call me Meemaw now!) is that you have to be intentional about your relationships or just like everything else in your life, you may not end up where you wanted to be.


For example, there are friends of ours that we have wanted to get together with for several months. We keep saying we should get together, but our schedules never seem to gel. Really, we should put something on the calendar even if it is two months out, or it will be six months from now and we will be saying we should get together soon.

The second issue I seem to struggle with is communication. I know I am bad at answering email and responding to voicemail (really I only check voicemail about once a week). Having been on the receiving end of that, I know it is frustrating. So if I have neglected responding to you, I apologize right now!

2011 Resolutions:

1. Choose one family member or close friend to focus on for a week. This will involve praying for them, sending them a note, making a phone call, etc. Tonight before bed I am writing their names on small slips of paper and putting them in a basket by my computer. Every Sun night, I will pull out the next name and tape it to my desk. (yeah for action steps) This is an experiment to see how this one works. I'll let you know how it is going in the next few weeks.

2. Communication. If that isn't the root of most difficulties, whether work, family, marriage, church, etc. I don't know what is! For MOPS, I am supposed to respond to email and voicemail within three days. I usually do pretty good with MOPS stuff (I think), but my personal stuff...not so good. I listen to the voicemail, read the mail, read the email or facebook message and then think I will respond later only to get distracted later and never follow through. So like Creative Memories says, I am starting today, staying current, and then work backwards to "catch up". So if you sent me something and I didn't respond...send it again and it will go to the top of the list!

3. My family. I'm adding this as another area for me to work on. I want to have my "chores" done by the time the kids come home from school so that I can have time to sit and work on homework, read that book, play that game (as long as it isn't monopoly!) and just be with my kiddos. Because this as a goal seems a bit overwhelming, I decided to start with a day...Wednesday...and make sure that every Wednesday is reserved for my kiddos. Hopefully by May there will be more than one school day afternoon like that.