Freeze

If I could freeze a day, today would probably be one of those days.
It's rare that we have a good day when we are home all day, but today was one of those days when everyone was in just the right mood to all get along.
It was so nice.
We had a leisurely morning, with both Albert and I getting a little time to ourselves, we had fun playing with the kids and lunch was yummy too. We had some awesome friends come over for coffee and had a wonderful visit with them. We had some more fun outside (even though it was terribly cold) after that with the kids and then we had bbq hamburgers for supper. Supper was followed up by some more good playtime with the kids and then a getting ready for bed dance party to Toby Mac and Grits. It was just a really great day- I know it doesn't seem like we did anything special, but it was incredibly special to me. There were no extreme melt-downs, lose your cool moments or time outs. It made me smile ...smile big. Today we gelled and felt truly like a family. Big smiley face :)

Thanks for letting me share my joy.

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Read these verses this morning. This promise certainly set the tone for the day.

 

I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there?

My help comes from the lord,who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

The lord himself watches over you!

The lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

The lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.

The lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

~Psalm 121~

2 steps forward, 5 steps back

Nothing is ever predictable around here anymore. Just when you think things are going great one minute, the next minute they can crash and burn. I know sounds a bit overdramatic but sometimes that's just the way it is.
We finally got over all the craziness of sicknesses from a couple weeks ago and we are slowly working our way back to where we were. It's a crazy thing, I tell you. When A gets sick, it's like she reverts back to all her previous behaviours and frustrations. She stops communicating and is simply angry. I understand that it is awful to be sick. No one likes being sick. But it's different for her. She's so mad that she is sick and just shuts down. When she is finally well again, it takes weeks to get the progress back that we had before she was sick. It's crazy. I thought today was finally the day when we were back to where we were a month ago, and then BAM giant meltdown for some reason that we obviously missed because I, nor Albert, have any idea what caused it! You just have to wonder sometimes what goes through that little head of hers. What has it seen, where has it been before coming to us. Or is this simply her? Micah isn't like that when he is sick. He's a lot less happy, but he doesn't regress. It baffles me. But we keep carrying on. We managed to salvage bedtime...I think. But she's still rolling around in there probably because we started too early because of the giant meltdown. Or maybe it's the Easter sugar catching up with her. ...hmmmmm

Anyways...on a more positive note, something really cute that she has started doing is saying "LOVE YOU". At first I would just say it to her and she wouldn't say anything. Then one day she said it back and we just said it back and forth....now she initiates it! It's super touching and melts my heart everytime she looks up at me with a smile and says "love you".
She also will go up to someone (usually Albert or Micah) and say "hug". It's pretty darn cute!

Another really awesome thing that we are starting to see with her is empathy. She gets very concerned when someone is hurt or crying. She will actually go up to them and pat or rub them to help them feel better! This is a huge thing as she used to throw herself down and cry too if there was another child crying. So thankful for this step as well.

I hope that you all had a blessed Easter weekend. We enjoyed visiting family and having a family day.

So thankful for God's great love. Just knowing Jesus spurs us on in love and in love we are able to serve others. Without that great love we would be nothing.

For God so LOVED the world that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
~ John 3:16~