Let me guess…you’ve been there?  This particular night the thing keeping me awake was whether or not to leave my 2 year old in a preschool class I wasn’t really sure was right for her.  Small potatoes compared to some of the major decisions we come up against in our lives, but at the moment it was a major deal for me.  There were so many factors I was considering- money, social skills, family dynamics, wondering what others would think, ultimately wondering what was best for our daughter and our family.  Finally, I prayed that God would make the right path clear when I talked with my husband the next day and I drifted off to sleep.

And God did.  Do you want to know how?  Not any booming (or quiet) voices out of the sky, no mysterious messages in my breakfast cereal, but something even more sure and concrete.  He led me to think about our vision for our family.  Over the years, though Spencer and I have never written down a formal “mission statement”, we have had many conversations about the goals and priorities of our little family.  Together, we’ve articulated our vision for what we want our family to be and we’ve discussed how best we think we can achieve that.  That vision is what God brought to mind the next day when I spoke with my husband.

And, suddenly, this tough decision really wasn’t all that tough.

When I was able to step back and remind myself of my family’s priorities and goals, the decision almost seemed to make itself.  I was no longer penned in by society’s expectations or fear of what other people would think.  Those things were no longer a factor because ultimately they don’t play a role in our vision for our family.  So, calling the (very lovely) preschool director to tell her we were pulling Haddy out of the class was a relief instead of a dreaded, guilt-ridden chore.  I knew we were making the right decision for our family, and that was what counted.

So, my advice to you is this: if you are married, talk with your spouse a lot about your mission and vision for your family.  What are your core priorities?  What do you believe about finances and education and careers and everything else?  What do you want your family’s lasting impact on those around you to be?

If you have kids, talk a lot about your priorities in raising them.  What do you believe about training, discipline, education, the list goes on and on!  If it helps you, right down your vision.  But I don’t think that’s always necessary.  The most important part is communicating with your spouse and partner.  When you have date nights, re-evaluate and see if you are still on the same page.  Talk about what’s really important….a lot.

And when you do, I think you’ll see that tough decisions can be a little bit easier.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about God’s Word is that it is truly a living, breathing document.  I am reminded of this when I go to a passage I have read numerous times before and see or learn something completely new.

That happened to me recently with this passage, Psalm 1.  I have read it before.  And yet when I read it the other day I saw something I had not noticed in previous readings.  And it spoke to the exact place where I am at the moment: caught in the struggle between being and doing.

Let me see if I can explain (I probably can’t).  I have been struggling lately with my consuming need to do. My tendency to define who I am by what I do (or don’t do) on any given day.  And I have sadly fallen into the trap of thinking that I am made more or less of a person, more or less worthy of love and respect based on what I do. It was making me miserable.

But then God began to gently remind me that there is really nothing I can do to make myself worthy of His love- and yet He gives it.  Abundantly.  Freely.  Based on nothing I have done, but based on what He has done.  And He calls me just to be.  To be in His love, to be in Christ.  Just to be.

And that is what I saw when I read Psalm 1 with fresh eyes last week.  The contrast between being and doing.  The first 2 verses are all the things that the righteous shouldn’t do: DON’T walk in the counsel of the wicked, DON’T sit in the seat of scoffers, DON’T stand in the way of sinners.  And so, in the next section, the do-er in me is expecting list of what I SHOULD do.  And what does the psalmist say?  Delight!  Delight and meditate!  Really?  That’s it?  Doesn’t sound very productive.

Then the writer really throws me for a loop and compares the righteous to a tree.

Hmmmm…trees don’t do much.

I mean, I realize that all sorts of photosynthesis and root building and such is going on to keep the tree alive, but the trees in my yard…they’re pretty docile.  No moving.  No rushing about.  No busy-ness to be seen.  They just stand there.

And that is how the righteous are pictured in this Psalm.  Trees, just standing there and drinking in the water given by the stream of life beside which they are planted.  And then doing what just comes naturally to trees- producing fruit.  I’m pretty sure trees don’t schedule their fruit bearing or make lists of things to be done in order to bear it, there are no big tree meetings where they discuss the need to more efficiently use their fruit-bearing time.  It’s just healthy trees being healthy trees- they bear fruit.

So, as odd as it may sound, my goal right now is to be a tree.  To be content with just being. To drink in that living stream beside which I am so blessed to be planted and just be.  Yes, dinner will still need to be cooked and errands will still be run. Being doesn’t equal apathy.  But it means that our actions are empowered by the Holy Spirit, not pushed along by our own self-efforts.  I understand that doing is a necessary part of my life.

But it isn’t the most important part.  Or the best.  The best part is just being in Christ.  That’s what I want to hold on to.

*This post is a part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom.

This post is one in a series I decided to do this summer about uncomplicating our lives. It seems like we tend to make simple things so difficult, and we drive ourselves nutty in the process.  Last week I mused a little on how making things simpler doesn’t always (or usually) mean making them easier.  And that is true when it comes to finding fun, engaging activities for our kids.  Easy would be hours spent in front of some sort of electronic device, be it the computer, television, or video game system.  But we all know that’s not the best decision.

So, how do we do it?  How do we keep our kids engaged in fun, interesting activities without becoming a stressed out activities coordinator?  In my experience, kids are actually entertained by some of the simplest things in life.  And, as parents, we should take advantage of that.  Here are some of our favorite, simple, fun activities.

Get Outside A while back I wrote some thoughts after reading the book The Last Child in the Woods. If I needed any more convincing, this book did it for me.  Our kids need to be outside. Period.  They need to run and play and get dirty with our blessing.  Our girls current favorite activity is swinging, which they could literally do for hours.  But if you don’t have a swing set, a shovel and a rake and some dirt are also tons of fun.  Bikes are a tried and true favorite, and our girls have a particular affinity for anything they can put dolls in and push/pull around (we have a dolly stroller and small wagon that they love).  Now, again, I didn’t say this was necessarily easy.  Especially when you’re 7 months pregnant and it’s 99 degrees outside.  But it is simple.  And it’s good for our kids.

Dough is a Mom’s Best Friend When we are inside, there is one magic item I have found that will occupy my children for untold amounts of time.  Dough.  Yes, you can buy the stuff at the store, but mine are actually happier with the homemade variety.  For craft projects, we make salt dough, which is super easy.  Mix together 1 part flour, 1 part salt, and 1/2 part water.  We’ve used this to make Christmas ornaments and beads, and I’ve made it just for the girls to attack with a rolling pin, toothpicks, and random cookie cutters.  It doesn’t keep long, but it’s incredibly cheap to make and it air dries over night if you want to keep your creations.

Their other favorite dough variety is bread dough.  Whenever I make bread or pizza dough, I pinch off a ball for each of them to play with.  They will stretch, roll, cut, and create their hearts out.  My husband even likes to get in on the act.  It’s kind of cathartic!  If you’ve never made bread, try it, it isn’t all that hard and your kids will love playing with the dough no matter what the finished product tastes like!

Books, Books, and More Books One of my favorite simple activities is reading to my girls.  And one of their favorite activities is “reading” books to themselves.  If you are a new or expecting mom, my advice is this: Start reading to your kids before they are old enough to crawl away.  Get them used to sitting and looking at books.  Ingrain in them a love of reading stories and you will be doing yourself the biggest favor in the world.  If you drop by my house, you will likely find books scattered in almost every room.  We try to put them all back in their proper place each night, but inevitably they migrate out into the rest of the house again each day.  The girls like to “read” to their dolls and stuffed animals, play library, and (of course) they love to be read to by their dad or me or any other willing adult who happens to be here.

If you need help in finding good children’s books (because there are a lot of BAD children’s books out there), here is a post I wrote on that very thing.  There are some good links to book lists to get you started!

When All Else Fails, Let Boredom be an Option Okay, back to the whole notion that we are supposed to be the Amazing Activities Coordinator on this cruise ship called life.  In my opinion, we’re not. It is my job to raise up my children in the way that they should go, not to constantly provide entertainment for them.  And so, there are times when my kids get bored.  And that’s okay.  That’s when they have to use their imaginations and come up with something to do on their own. I can’t stress to you how vital it is to me as a mother that my children be able to play by themselves.  And I believe it’s vital to them as well.  They need the skill of being able to entertain themselves and they need the understanding that life is not always one exciting activity after another.  They need those quiet, solitary moments.  And goodness knows I do!

I love this post from Simple Mom.  It has great indoor activities for your kids that are both fun and simple.  But my favorite is #20, which is to do….nothing.  Sometimes, as moms, that is exactly what we need to do.  Simple, but never easy.

*What are some of your favorite, simple activities for your kids?

Let me back up and explain.  This past Saturday I decided to give my kitchen cabinet doors a good cleaning.  I figure they probably need it every 3 years or so, right?  Besides, the one that houses our trash can was starting to get a little, shall we say, sticky.  So I grabbed a rag and the cleaner and went to it.

Strange how things look differently when you sit on your kitchen floor.  As in dirtier.  I sat and painstakingly wiped away coffee drips and finger smudges and, ewwww…what is that??  And then I got to the section of cabinets directly under the counter top where I do most of my food prep.  There was the mysterious black line.  I wiped, I sprayed, I scrubbed, but to no avail.  The line would not budge.

Weird. I thought.  Then, That could probably use some touch up paint.  Wonder if we have it still?  It’s probably in the basement somewhere on the “partially used cans of paint and other home improvement necessities” shelf. But first, I had to figure out what could have caused it.

I scooted back and surveyed the line.  It ran from the cabinet just beside the sink to the corner and across the cabinets under the stove top.  It was about 2 1/2 feet from the ground.  It was faint in spots, but it almost looked like something had run into the cabinets to make such a mark.

And then it hit me.

We have lovely wooden dining chairs from IKEA that my husband painted black.  Whenever I start doing anything involving food, from making sandwiches to chopping vegetables to pounding chicken, one of my girls hears me and inevitably yells, “Wait!  I want to help!  Let me get a chair.”  Then I hear the tell-tale scraping of said IKEA chair across the floor until they slam it into the kitchen cabinets and hop on up to, ahem, assist Mommy.

They love to crack eggs (I’m an excellent shell-fisher-outer) and peel vegetables and even stir soup.  And they do it all perched from their lovely black chair, which is moved back and forth to obtain the optimal helping stance, and sometimes to allow the head chef access to necessary equipment in the cabinets below.

And so, the mystery was solved.  In the end, the line made me smile.  Because it reminds me that habits and repetition build fond memories.  It reminds me that if you do things often enough, they will leave their mark.  And it reminds me that there are things more important than sparkling kitchen cabinets.

I think I’ll wait until they leave for college to get that touch up paint.

*This post is a part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom.

easy: not hard or difficult; requiring no great labor or effort

simple: not elaborate or artificial; plain

I love how the definition for “easy” focuses on the output required to do the thing while the definition for “simple” focuses on the thing itself.  I mentioned in the post on Uncomplicated Cooking that preparing simple meals (i.e. meals that are not artificial or elaborate) is very different than taking the easy route (let’s face it, boxed mac n cheese does not require a great labor or effort).  This thinking can be applied to almost every realm of our lives.  And, in my opinion, simple trumps easy almost every time.

Take parenting, for example.  To parent our children well is really quite simple.  We must love them consistently, provide consistent boundaries and consequences, teach them consistent truths.  Not rocket science, to be sure, though scores of books have been written to muddy the waters and make us think that there is some magic formula to perfect parenting and perfect children.

In reality, it’s quite simple.  But easy?

Ummmm….NO.

Is it easy to love consistently when you’ve had 4 hours of sleep or your child is asking the same question for the thousandth time?  No.  Is it easy to provide consistent boundaries when you know that giving in (just this once) would mean a lot less whining in the short term?  No. Is it easy to teach truth consistently when our own tempers and sinful natures rear their ugly heads?  No.  Definitely not easy.  But not all that complicated either.

My challenge to myself right now is to look at how I am living and see if I am aiming for simplicity (which, I think, is a good thing) or just going with what’s easiest (which is often not best in the long run).  That isn’t to say that easy doesn’t sometimes win out (or shouldn’t sometimes win out).  But I want the balance of my life to be marked by choosing what is best, not what is easiest.

Sounds simple enough, right?  But it doesn’t seem to be all that easy…

Piper’s swimming lessons began ubiquitously enough.  Day One was pretty good.  She was apprehensive but basically listened and did fairly well.  I breathed a silent sigh of relief and readied myself for an easy week.

But Day Two was not the same.

For some reason my daughter waited until the second day to pull out the sound-barrier-breaking shrieks of terror (and, incidentally, aimed many of them at the poor college boy who was helping).  She screamed about having to swim in the deep end, she screamed about having to put her face in the water, and boy, oh boy, did she scream about going off the diving board.  It was an, um, extremely loud session.

We disciplined her for expressing herself so inappropriately and talked to her about other ways to share her fears. I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth as we walked into Day Three.

No screaming on Day Three, instead the chosen tactic was argue-and-delay.  There was LOTS of drama and many attempts at bargaining (”I don’t want to do it five times!  I’ll do it two and that’s it!”).  Her teacher’s favorite moment of the day was when she was told she was going to learn how to touch the bottom of the pool.  Her eyes widened and in a voice that could win an Academy Award, she moaned “But Miss Tiffany, that will be AWWWFULLL!”  Things seemed to be going from bad to worse.

And then, on Day Four, I learned something important.  Perhaps it would be better to say that God reminded me of something important.  Namely Himself.  So before we headed to the pool on the fourth day, I talked to Piper about why she was scared and reminded her of one of her memory verses (When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56:3).  Then we prayed and when she looked up, I could almost see the tension ease a bit.  She walked into the pool area that day still a bit nervous, but ready to take on any task she was given.  And she did.

Day Five began with another prayer and, again, she did beautifully.  No tears, no arguing, and the only drama to be had was the excitement in showing her daddy how she could jump off the diving board!

So, last week, my daughter and I both learned something very important.  Piper learned how to make it all the way across the deep end of the pool without swallowing obscene amounts of chlorinated water.  Quite an accomplishment for her five-year-old self.  But I, I learned something that I think is just as valuable (probably more so).  And that is that when my children are scared (or nervous, or sad, or disobedient…the list goes on) my FIRST reaction should be to point them back to God and His Word.  Teaching them to rely on their Heavenly Father is something that will help them in all areas of life, even when it comes to swimming lessons.

*This post is a part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom.

I have written before that I love ideas/products/activities that 1. are good for my family, 2. save us money, and 3. help preserve & enhance this beautiful creation that God has given us.  I’m pretty sure all 5 of these tips do all of those!

1. Plant a garden. For some of you, this one might seem beyond obvious, for others it will seem completely over the top.  But trust me, it isn’t as hard as you think.  Start with containers of fresh herbs on your porch and go from there.  Only plant things you know your family likes to eat and you’ll be delighted when you can go and pick dinner from your own garden instead of buying it at a store!

2. Ditch disposables in favor of reusables. Last summer I wrote here about how I repurposed old towels and fabric scraps into cloth napkins and since then our family’s use of paper towels has been cut dramatically!  My next reusable project is to make some of these reusable snack bags and sandwich wraps so that packing lunches will be much greener (and cuter)! Not into sewing?  You can buy adorable and affordable ones here, and just think how much you’ll save on plastic baggies!

3. Start composting. This one took a little while before we got the hang of it, but we have probably cut our weekly garbage load by almost half between composting and #2.  We have chosen to have a simple compost pile in a discreet corner of our backyard, no fancy barrels or bins here.  The trick has been making sure we balance our food scraps out with equal parts “brown” materials (dead leaves and grass clippings are what we use).  We have a small bin we bought at Ikea for less than $10 that I collect our food scraps in and when it fills up my husband takes it and dumps it in our pile.  We cover it with leaves & grass, turn it regularly and it magically turns into rich brown compost for our plants!  Simple Mom has some great tips on starting your own compost pile.

4. Make your own cleaners. I’m planning on writing more about this later, but suffice it to say that we now clean just about everything in our house (that isn’t a human) with vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and biodegradable dishwashing liquid.  This one is so easy (and cheap!) that I can’t believe I didn’t start doing it years ago. I’ve found some great homemade cleaner recipes at Simple Mom and I LOVE  these posts on how to clean almost anything with white vinegar and baking soda.

5. Buy less stuff. Period. I realize that this one is much easier said than done, but when I am really intentional about shopping for my family, I realize just how little I actually need to buy.  Does my daughter need another pair of shoes this summer?  No. Do we have to have a new toy to take on vacation? No. Is that cute top on the clearance rack a necessity? No. Our cozy little brick ranch home currently houses a family of four (with one more due in the Fall), a homeschool, and the office/headquarters for my husband’s non profit organization AND our church!  With very little “extra” space, we have started thinking about every purchase that makes its way into our home.  And what we’ve decided is that a lot of the stuff is, well, just stuff.  We don’t need it, won’t use it, and probably won’t even notice it if we don’t buy it.  Buying less stuff can be hard at first, but it’s also amazingly freeing!

I hope all of you will share your tips for going green here.  And, if you’re in the Canton area, maybe we’ll see you at this weekend’s Green Festival!

I thought I’d start with food, because this is really where our journey began.  Let me first say that as a new bride 12 years ago I could. not. cook.  No exaggeration here.  I grew up in a house where we ate lots of dinners at home, but I was clueless as to how they were prepared.  So my husband lived for several years with over-cooked chicken, over-done meals, lots of hot sauce, and the generosity of friends and family.  He cooked many of our meals in those early years, and probably ALL of the edible ones.

Then we moved to Kentucky to go to seminary, and far away from our emergency back-up plan for eating (aka Our Family). S-l-o-w-l-y I began cooking more often, and cooking more things that were worth eating.  But, like all seminary students, we were pretty poor.  We lived on Aldi’s and the food we got for free in the seminary Food Line-most of which was processed and packaged.  Score one for cooking at home, but we still weren’t doing so well in the nutrition department.

I really started thinking about what we were eating when our first daughter was born.  Kids have a way of making you take stock in LOTS of things and our pantry was a big one for me.  Through the influence of wonderful friends, I began to see a different, simpler way of feeding my family.

Ours has been a journey to simple eating, and it is one we have far from completed.  I learn new things every day it seems, from insightful blogs and books.  But suffice it to say that my goals now for feeding my family are as follows:

1. Make as much as we can from scratch. I wrote here about our grocery store habits and how I have taken to buying mostly ingredients instead of packaged meals.  Now, for those of you who grind your own wheat and make your own yogurt, that may seem like a tiny little baby step…and it is. But it’s one we needed to take.  From pancakes to pizza crust to marinara, there are TONS of items that are very simple to make yourself, and are better for your health AND your wallet. (*When I do buy packaged stuff, like pretzels & loaf bread, I always look for the items with the fewest ingredients, preferable ones I can pronounce!)

2. Buy local whenever possible. We have been trying to do this for about a year, and now that I’ve finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I’m even more determined.  Summer Farmer’s Markets make this easy right now and I am researching local options for meat.  We are blessed to have a dairy close by as well.  Knowing where our food comes from is good in so many ways!  Which leads to #3…

3. Grow what we can at home. We started our first attempt at a garden 3 years ago.  We have a VERY shaded yard, so it has taken a bit of tweaking but we should have fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, and a variety of herbs from our own yard very soon!  Each year we will learn more about growing our own and this year I am determined to add “canning” to the list of ways we will save money.

4. Buy organic when it counts. Most will tell you that the biggest items to have on your organic list are meat and dairy products.  Finding local options can help cut costs here, as well as just eating less meat and dairy : )  For fruits and veggies, I try to follow the Dirty Dozen list and buy those things organically whenever possible.  Or not buy them.  It takes some getting used to (the whole “not always buying exactly what I want” thing) but it’s worth it in the long run.

Now….it may seem from this list that I have made cooking MORE complicated instead of LESS.  I mean, isn’t it easier to just open a box of mac & cheese than it is to wait for dough to rise??  Well, in the short run, it is easier.

But we are talking simple here, not necessarily easy.

And simple means eating what’s available seasonally where we live. It means planning simple meals with a few ingredients that are nutritious for my whole family.  It means teaching my kids that vegetables are their friends, or at the very least they are to be eaten when they are served.  It means reading labels and shopping intentionally in an effort to avoid loads of extra chemicals and preservatives in our diets.  And it means incorporating eating and cooking together into the fabric of our lives, and not just looking for the most convenient food available.

So, there you have it.  Our taken on uncomplicated cooking.  How does your family eat simply?

Our children are no different.  When we found out we were having our first daughter almost 6 years ago, we immediately knew what we wanted to name her.  She is Piper Joy.  Piper is taken from John Piper, an author and pastor who greatly influenced my husband and I early on in our walks with Christ.  We read his book Let the Nations Be Glad the summer of our first mission trip and it set our hearts afire for missions around the world. His application of theology to real life has had an enormous impact on both of us.  For her middle name we chose Joy, one of the fruits of the spirit.  This name is significant on several levels.  First, her birth brought immense joy to us after having dealt with 2 miscarriages previously.  Also, we hoped and prayed that joy would permeate her life and personality, and that her greatest joy would be in the God of the universe.  Lastly, Spence has a precious great-aunt named Joy who is an amazing blessing in our lives. And so, Piper Joy Nix entered our family.

Then, a little over 2 years later, we learned we were to add another little girl to our family.  This one we knew we would name Haddyn Grace.  Haddyn is the middle name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (with some liberty in the spelling to make it more feminine).  Spurgeon was a hugely influential pastor/preacher in Great Britain in the 19th century.  His sermons are inspiring and his vision of God was glorious.  The middle name Grace is not exactly unique, but it conveyed another fruit of the spirit which we saw illustrated in this little one’s birth and prayed would be made manifest in her life.  And so, Haddyn Grace Nix became Nix girl #2.

And now we are blessed beyond measure to be expecting the birth of another child this fall, Lord willing.  This time it is a boy and it took us a bit longer to land on a first name for this little one.  But we have finally decided and I think it’s perfect.  He will be Judson Goss.  Judson is taken from Adoniram Judson, a pioneer missionary to Burma in the 19th century.  Judson lived a life full of struggle, heartache, and filled with the glory of God.  He took the message of Jesus to a place few others would venture and his imprint is still upon the people there to this day.  Now obviously Goss is NOT a fruit of the spirit.  We wanted to keep with the whole middle-name-theme, but giving our son a middle name like Patience or Hope was pretty much out of the question.  So we settled on the next best thing.  Goss was the name of my husband’s paternal grandfather, and the man exemplified so many of the fruits of the spirit we pray for our son.  He was patient, kind, compassionate, loving, and humble.  He had a powerful influence in my husband’s life (which he wrote about briefly here) and I had the privilege of knowing him for 8 years before he passed away.  And so, we pray that in a few months, we will meet Judson Goss Nix and welcome him into our family.

Recently I was talking with a fellow teacher who is expecting her first child.  When the subject of names came up she said, “We want a name that will inspire him to greatness.”  What a goal!  We each have a vision for our children and it is our prayer that their names will help inspire them to fulfill that vision.  Their names have a story and I can’t wait to share it with each of them one day.

What are the stories behind the names of your children, or your own name?

Just a few days later he made a statement that elicited a similar response from me.  I was talking about our dinner plans (we seem to discuss food a lot) and he suggested we invite some friends over.  This would mean company for the 3rd time in a week.  This time it was my eyebrows that raised.  I think I replied with something like, “Wow.  Really?”

Amazing that after 12 years we can still surprise each other.  That’s because a lot can change in 12 years.  The city girl who doesn’t like to touch raw chicken can transform into a semi-gardener who loves compost and cooks homegrown veggies.  The introverted guy who would much rather just stay at home by himself can morph into a people-loving man who sees opportunities for connection and ministry at every social engagement.

We are not the same people we were a decade ago.

And the surprisingly wonderful thing is that this is a good thing.  Change is often good. In 12 years of marriage we have experienced great joy and great sorrow.  We have become a teacher, a minister, a mother and father, we have lived in different places.  And all of these things have shaped us and changed us, most of them for the better.

When we celebrated our 12th anniversary last month, we talked over dinner about life and marriage and family.  We mused over the vision we had for ourselves a decade ago and how different our lives actually are now.  We speculated about what our life would look like in 10 more years and decided that we will likely change even more.  Don’t get me wrong, some things will stay the same.  I’m sure Spencer will still make up fake lyrics to songs just to annoy me and I’m fairly certain I will still be a pretty grumpy person any time before 8 am.  But hopefully we will also grow, and become wiser, and look back on this time as one where we learned much and changed.

My husband isn’t the same man I married 12 years ago.  He’s even better.

*This post is a part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom.