Tuesday: Girls Night with a unexpected guest!

Granddaddy is out of town for a short business meeting and Caleb, Laura's boyfriend, is in St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands for work for the next two months, so when Bobby called to say he had a meeting tonight at 6:30 (Libby's favorite time) I called them to arrange a Girls Night out to dinner. Neither would pick a place, so I chose Libby's fav, Applebee's (we've been there one time!) After school, I called Bobby on the way to get Libby from my mom's to check on his day. A couple of things have happened, he says. Good, bad or ugly? I say. 1. He took someone to look at our house, which isn't even on the market yet. GREAT! Please pray that God would just work all this out, who He has for tHis house, the timing, the Adam/Katie thing, every little detail. With school taking up more than it's share of my mental capacity, I can't think about the house situation. But He can and He wants to lift that burden from me, and the school thing too if I would just let Him, at which I am doing better! 2. His meeting got cancelled! So he crashed our girls night but that's okay, we just made it family night instead. Gracias to Kim for picking up the tab! She said that was Bob's contribution since he couldn't be with us; he was having dinner at the Oyster Bar, which is hilarious because for our Christmas dinner, Kim & Caleb made this oyster dish that made Bob and the rest of us cringe! Libby started her new semester of music class today, God's Wonderful World. She has been doing Musikgarten since she was about six months old. She just sings all the time, loves playing her musical instruments. My mom takes her and they have made lots of new friends: Sam, Grace, Sara, Gigi, and a new little boy who just started today. Afterwards, they go outside and play on the church playground. Today was rather windy but still unseasonably warm. Tomorrow we start back to Bible Study Fellowship. I look forward to seeing everyone and getting back into the book of Matthew. We have been studying since the middle of September and are up to chapter twelve. One of my co-workers may join me for guest day this week. We were talking about how life has gotten so complicated. Jesus made things so simple. Love God, love others. That's the goal. I need to remind myself of that more often. My mind is drifting as I listen to the rain on the skylight. One thing I enjoy is falling asleep to the rain so I will call it a night. k

Monday: Mommies dinner & playdate

Tonight we were at Ms. Julie & Peyton's house for pizza while the Daddies met at The Livesay Group conference room. Ms. Susan & Hannah along with Ms. Amy & Ben and Matthew rounded out the group. So many new toys from Christmas, it was organized chaos! You would never know Matthew is the baby (or youngest I should say since he is one already), he is right in there with the rest of them, climbing on everything and staking his claim to the toy of the moment! He did look darling in his Ohio State outfit. It is a tie game at ten as I type now. Libby wore her pink cowboy boots and rode her pink/purple tricycle through the neighborhood since was an unusually warm January day. Bobby has the privilege of putting her to bed tonight.

Any New Year's Resolutions? I am modifying the phrase "one day at a time" to reflect my schedule, so here it is: Enjoy each half day at a time, then teach one class at a time. I am determined not to let school still my joy at home. I will not stay past 3:15. I will not fret about my situation. I will plan at school, grade at school and not bring work home -- period! Life is too short and Libby is only three this year. Lord, whatever I am supposed to learn from this please help me catch on quickly and make time fly! LSU just went up by a touchdown with seven minutes left in the second quarter. Until the next time, k

Saturday service & Brickman concert

The guest speaker at church tonight gave me new insight about being the one (the only leper to return to thank Jesus). Oh how I am like the nine, he pointed out that they were probably grateful but yet didn't go back and say so. His point, borrowed from Andy Stanly I think, is "Un-expressed gratitude actually communicates ingratitude." Before the sermon, he challenged us to think of five people we are grateful for, with the stipulation that only one could be a family member. Here are mine (be thinking about yours): 1. Libby, my precious daughter who models wonder, excitement and playfulness for me. 2. Kathryn, my BSF leader who has just gone the extra mile for me and really helped me feel comfortable in group again. She has no idea. 3. Amy M., for taking the baton from me when I passed along my "housekeeper," she is still continuing to witness to this precious child of God who is traveling on the wide, wrong road. 4. Karen K., who inspires me with her wonderful insights on adoption through her blog. now here is where I got stuck, I could think of a million people (maybe not actually 1,000,000 but ya know...) I saw I only had females, so I was trying to think a male, other than a family member since that would be breaking the rules so, here we go 5. Jesus Christ, and no, I am not kissing up. I would be lost, more so than I am now, if I did not have a relationship with Him. And while I have not spent as much time with him over the Christmas break as I wanted, He is faithful and waiting whenever I come to Him. During worship we sang one of my favorite songs (or combination of old hymn with new lyrics), OH praise the one who paid my debt and raises life up from the dead, it's Jesus, Jesus paid it all all to Him I owe sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow.

If we have another child, or adopt, a daughter, I would love to name her Scarlett Snow. I'm not sure I have carte blanche (is there an e on this?) on this child's name as I did with Libby but what a reflection of our human state of grace. We are as filthy rags but God sees us wrapped in the light of his Son!

Do you have your five? Please share if you feel led.

Libby stayed with us in the service this time, choosing not to go with the three year olds tonight. Afterwards, we dropped her of at Granddaddy and Nana Kim's so that Bobby and I could have a date night. They bought me tickets to the Jim Brickman holiday concert. I am a huge fan, first seeing him in NYC, then with Bobby while we were dating at Cicny and Louisville, and then I took Lynn and Leah the Christmas before our wedding.

We grabbed a quick bite at Raising Cane's on campus, our first time. Zo, our cashier, was great and recommended meals for both of us that were great. Reminds me of Zaxby's (have ya'll been to the one in Nicholasville?) We had a great time talking about "dreams" but also planning our date nights for the next three months. Looking forward to more fun nights like this. Concert was great as usual, he and Anne have such a repore (how do I spell this? I now it is not right but it's late), I think from going to high school together. I was introduced to some new songs and we purchased a new Christmas CD. I know I only have a little while more to listen to it this year but it will be great to pull it out next year.

I have enjoyed these nightly reflections. We'll see if I can keep it up when the school year starts back. May you have peaceful rest, akml

Today's Top Ten in no particular order

1. Jesus made the sky and Jesus made us!

2. Do dogs yawn? (after she had yawned, I then yawned, and I had tried to explain "contagious" to her!)

3. I don't talk well (she just couldn't get out what she wanted to say. I know she was tired, no nap today, but I need to pay more attention to when she "stutters", she doesn't stutter the first letter, but the whole word. It makes me sad to hear her say this. I want to know how I can help her, tonight I just suggested she use her hands and that worked.)

4. This is the best Christmas ever (while we were wrapping Nana Kim's present, I was letting her cut the paper and she was sticking tape everywhere, she wrote her name on the gift tag and it turned out Anna, she doesn't yet know left to right, she usually writes backwards and wherever there is room)

5. I am disappointed (don't remember at what, but I know I say this to her when she does something she shouldn't, maybe it was because she didn't get to go shopping with her Mama and me)

6. She asked me to sing to her as we rocked, "Happy Birthday to Jesus"

7. We went to the library to return some of my books, because of the rain, I was just going to drive through the book drop, but she wanted to go in and look at the books. I followed her around the shelves and watched as she would pull out random ones, and then put them back (my OCD kicked in a little as I stressed if she put them in the correct spot but I let it go quickly!), we jumped on the circular alphabet carpet spelling our names, she went to "check her email" while I searched the other computer card catalog for Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear (couldn't remember the author of Big Hungry Bear, her favorite book right now) Don and Audrey Wood so off we went to find it. One of her favorite episodes of Caillou is him going to the library with his library card, so we had to get her one. She was so excited! Carried it around proudly everywhere and wanted to tell everyone! How precious, my little reader!

8. While we were driving and talking, she replied to me "not exactly", I guess she has been seeing too many of those Hertz commercials, crack me up!

9. Very interested in "what time is it", loves anything on the half hour, when asked when we were going to Granddaddy's she replied "about six thirty" which was correct, when we were trying to nap she asked me when we were going to get up, "4:30 or 5", "I think five, mommy"

10. Just watching her tonight, run back and forth from the kitchen to the den, taking requests and relaying messages, very dramatic, saying the prayer twice, because the first time she didn't have everyone's attention, after finishing her dinner and leaving to play, she came back in and "do you know what time it is? present time!" trying to get the rest of us to hurry up and eat our dinner! where are our priorities?

Mom and Bobby, feel free to add any sayings you can remember from today!