Bump Photos!

Billy and I had maternity pictures taken before Christmas, and I LOVE how they turned out!  Jeff & Amanda at Dreampop design and media made it an awesome experience, and I couldn't be happier.  They're going to take some pictures of Liam when he comes, and I'm doubly excited now!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Confused?

Tuesday night, sitting in our birthing class, I took a moment to snap a mental picture.  We're all sitting in a circle, and the instructor is rocking in a weird bamboo chair while wearing a long, flowy skirt and letting her frizzy hair go free.  And we're illustrating a large piece of paper with colors and elements that are supposed to represent what we want to "bring to our birth" while all sprawled out on the floor.
And all I could think was: I love this.
Next thought: Holy cow.  We've totally become closet hippies.


Maybe it's the whole natural birth/midwife thing.
Or the whole thing about eating food with no preservatives and getting excited about juicing things like spinach and kale...
Or heavily considering cloth diapering.  I mean, how cute are these:

However, I still don't love Janice Joplin.  

And I still think free love and perpetually dirty feet and the spiritual side of yoga kind of freak me out.  

And I still have a love affair with J. Crew.

And I would never, ever consider getting a van like this one:

If I seem confused, you may call me balanced, or maybe eclectic... because it sounds much better!

Anti-Resolutions

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions.  Mostly, this is because I'm already such a list maker, and I already have enough on the one titled "To-Do."

This year, instead, I have a few things I'd like to focus on not doing.  Intentionality is often the only way I remember these things, and I consistently have to remind myself of them.

2012 - The Not To Do List:

Worthless Words
This includes gossip, over-complaining, and being discouraging.  Sometimes I forget the power that God has given our words, and I allow things to come out of my mouth that I don't even mean.  Knowing that my words have life and death helps put things in perspective.  I only want words of life coming out of me.

Self-Promotion
It's such an ever present part of our flesh.  The desire for approval, for popularity, for success.  Yet the more I seek those things, the farther I am drawn away from the presence of God.  Often, I don't even realize when my motives are selfish because it's so natural to think this way.  I desperately desire to stop all comparisons and frustrations when things don't go my way.  I want my confidence to come from God, and I want to be just as happy for others as I would be for myself - all of the time.

Procrastination
This has nothing to do with making sure I do that craft from Pinterest ASAP (though, I would like to just sit down and make something I've just pinned right after pinning it).  It has more to do with people. I don't want the people I encounter to slip through the cracks of my life unnoticed.  I want to have the presence of mind to contact somebody as soon as they come to mind - ask how they are, see if there's a need to pray for, or just send an encouraging note.  There is hardly ever a consequence for doing this, but there could be unknown consequences if I don't.

• • •

These ideas are not new ones, yet I am so very aware of myself and the imperfections that can keep me from fulfilling God's plans for me if I am not daily on my guard.  Thankfully, I have a perfect Savior who gives me the grace to make these efforts into realities.

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak! -Matthew 26:41

Brand New Year!

Welcome to a new year!  I cannot believe it is 2012, and, even more, I cannot believe how our lives have turned out!  For the entire year of 2011, we spent an abundance of time praying, reading, praying, discussing, and praying some more.  We knew that God was doing something in our hearts and in our lives, but we were unsure as to where that would take us (if anywhere).

Well, up until the end of last year, we were fairly sure that God was taking us in one direction.  However, he is God, and his thoughts are higher than ours.  The one thing that we were 100% sure of was that we desperately wanted to be right where God wanted us, no matter how it looked.  And we trusted that he would lead us, and he did, as he always does.

He is leading us into 2012, and I'm overwhelmingly excited.  Billy is now working full-time at our church, and I am not working at all (except, you know, at making a baby).  In just 6 short weeks, we will be having a little boy entering our lives, and we couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Here's a picture from last week (33 weeks pregnant) -

I'm so very glad to be back to blogging on a more regular basis.  Waiting over 2011 taught me more than anything else could have, but it made me very quiet, very watchful of what I shared.  Now that some things are settled, I can share more of my heart with you all!