Multitude Monday

 Easter.  The Resurrection.  In one moment, where a dead man breathed anew, the entire order of the world changed.  Humanity went from a dying people estranged from a Holy God to a people loved so completely that the very same God would purchase us back from slavery to sin with the blood of His very Life.  We were redeemed.  And so I sit again to count moments as redeemed for His glory.

#1795-1829

• Overtime and gas reimbursement equaling enough to pay off the rest of our insurance deductible for the year
• 2 Sunshine Radians and my already owned Graco SnugRide fitting 3 across in my Corolla Rear Facing
• Powering through the editing of my images from my last session.
• Clothing from Auntie Jen, always unexpected and always super cute
• Throw up bug #2 being far less sever than the first and only affecting Aeralind one time
• Bronwyn, Derek, and I unaffected by bug #2
• Babies holding hands during a meal
• Correct context and usage of the words “uh oh” as taught by Aunt Ruthie and Carol
• Amber’s Simply Said launch party with grown-up conversation!
• Looking forward to hosting my own Simply Said Party 🙂
• Hosting a party giving me a firm deadline for completing the kitchen cabinets remodel
• Babies who sign 🙂
• Apple Butter
• Avocado
• Zoo play date canceled due to weather that caused me to invite myself to the farm to help with Easter celebration preparations
• Carol telling me of the Lord allowing her to cross one of the busiest roads in our town 3 different times with no traffic when she was grocery shopping when she wasn’t feeling well.  What thankfulness!
• Washing tons of dishes
• Seeing how smart the girls are through Ruthie and Carol’s eyes as Aeralind put away CDs and Bronwyn climbed a bar stool to stand on top and thieve food.
• Being told and watching how well the girls listen to no
• Ruthie and Carol finally witnessing the “smile cutely and wave” version of defiance
• Bronwyn’s sign language and spoken language taking off and seeing how proud she is that she can communicate successfully
• Aeralind happily mopping the floor with a wet rag
• Washing tons of dishes, peeling dozens of eggs, making fruit salad, and peeling apples for pie to help Carol prepare for 70 guests
• Meeting Derek at Chick-fil-a for dinner
• Yummy non-rotten baby Carrots
• 71 people running in joyful chaos all over the farm
• Yummy food
• singing with 71 voices
• the girls riding a horse with Aunt Ruthie
• laughing at a pant-less Aeralind watching everyone outside the window and refusing to nap
• Hearing the Gospel on Easter- Oh, the Joy!
• Girls eating/teething on raw baby carrots
• laundry on the line
• A & B conquering all but two climbable surfaces of the 7 at the 2-5 year park. Scared me senseless at time… but they are so proud of themselves!
• A potential new client

I’m slowly coming back out of a coma.
No, I haven’t been in a car wreck or otherwise had my health compromised.

You see gift #1583: “a very unexpected surprise!”  has been wrecking havoc with me.  That gift made it impossible for me to be awake during the girl’s nap time (and my typical blog time) for about 10 weeks now.

But I’m slowly coming back out of the coma and wanted to introduce you personally to gift #1583.

We’re all doing great now that we’re through the insanity of the first trimester.  My energy is being restored and I’m enjoying this time with my two before they become three 🙂

#1737-1794

• Little Aeralind girls snuggling with my childhood teddy “Cranky” and playing with his whiskers just like I would

• Bronwyn feeding 9 month Addison Cheerios one by one
• Dani bringing Addison and Colton to play on a cold dreary day after a sleepless night for our house
• B & A reading with Dani
• Exhausted babies napping well
• Helman’s Mayo commercial dances with hubby
• 10 minutes of Bronwyn snuggles first thing in the morning
• Daddy and Aeralind joining us in bed
• Bronwyn wrapping the birding Gwampa around her little fingers- I think she convinced him that she was incapable of walking long distances
• Little Ponytails!

• Ruthing and Nana taking the girls overnight at the farm
• Date Night with Derek
• Laughing hysterically over the tot sized potty at ToysRUs with a complete stranger
• Snuggling on the couch
• Uneventful drives to and from Atlanta
• Only being the second shooter at Derek’s sister’s wedding
• Being able to explore wedding photography creatively with the pressure off of having to capture every shot
• Playing with Sun Flare

• Capturing details like toes, dresses, flower girl shoes
• Watching Mariana dance and snuggle with her Uncle Derek
• Getting to talk to Aunt “Monkey” at the reception
• Aeralind waking up to snuggle because of gas right as we got home from Georgia. After 2 nights away, momma needed the snuggles more than Aerie did!
• Exhausted slug state and the husband with the energy and grace to just let me rest most of the morning
• Aeralind tackling the biggest, bumpiest slide at the playground all by herself and sitting on her bottom.
• Biodiversity in my backyard: I do believe we have 4 different types of grass and 16+ types of weeds.  At least it’s green 🙂
• Red-Tailed Hawk flying right over us
• Neglected Lilies of the Valley coming back up this year
• Vocabulary Explosions
• 7 hours overtime due to his bosses vacation even if it means less daddy time
• Sunshine after a week of rain
• Aeralind snuggling with my 27 year old Cranky bear
• Talking with Tamara
• More paint applied to cabinet doors
• Final paint color selected 
• Free breakfast with the family at Chick-fil-a
• Library Programs
• First Ponytails the the dozen or so since
• Friday with a fun weekend ahead of us (after last weekend was spent nursing the stomach bug)
• Julia 🙂
• Hard stories, but ones of Redemption
• True peek-a-boo with the girls
• Open mouthed on the mouth roaring Aeralind kisses
• All but 7 cabinet doors completely primed
• After 7 months without being near one, the girls still loving the swimming pool!
• While teaching Aeralind that if she falls in the pool to turn and grab the side, seeing her do a pull up on the poolside to chew/teeth on the concrete. Hysterical!
• Brady’s Party 🙂
• Little Bronwyn Making other feed her fruit salad simply by smiling and signing please
• Aeralind stealing and shoveling unattended cupcakes into her mouth! (3 to be precise!)
• Derek taking back the two bags of rotten baby carrots.

I’m not sure where last week went.  It must have flow off silently and beautifully like the one single thing that I managed to record in my gratitude journal:

1736. First Monarch Butterfly of the Season

Photo from Ted_Roger_Karson’s Flickr Photostream.

Please excuse my long absence.  It’s been ranging from 65-85 degrees here and I can’t bear to sit inside for more than an hour. I think I have Spring Fever.  In my defense, I’m not the only one.  Two little people have been known to grab their footwear and declare “Oos!” before I’ve even managed to get pants and a shirt on them!  Staying inside is tough and since our only computer is a desktop… well you follow the logic 🙂

So anyhow, I have this song playing over and over in my head these days.

The chorus goes:
“This is the stuff that drives me crazy.
This is the stuff that’s getting to me lately.
In the middle of my little mess,
I forget how big I’m blessed.
This is the stuff that gets under my skin,
and I’ve gotta trust You know exactly what You’re doing.
It might not be what I would choose,
but this is the stuff You use.”

I like it so much because it’s totally where I am right now. I can’t tell you how many times in the last year and a half I’ve had to beg people to call me so I could find my phone. Or how many times I’ve woken again in the middle of the night in impatient frustration that these girls just won’t sleep and cried loudly “How long, Oh, Lord!”

This is the stuff You use.
All I can do is just keep counting the ways I’m blessed.
 #1642-1735

• Talking over a problem with Nana
• Tears- the release
• Nan prayers
• Hope
• Half asleep naps on the couch while girls ‘drive’ cars
• Long Naps
• First 100 Words Book– it’s an obsession.  Between it’s size, the objects, and the words, it hasn’t grown old.
• February Thunderstorms
• Mashed Potatoes
• The creativity of cooking
• Getting cabinet doors, dry diapers, and a wandering shoe inside before the rain came.
• The $119,000 Wind Chime: a joke really as it was on the tree behind the house when we bough it
• Linen for Living History Farm costumes
• Bronwyn signing “Food”
• Naps for babies and Mommy
• Aeralind and Bronwyn finally figuring out how to get on the tall slide platform
• Aerie pushing Bronwyn down the slide
• Y childcare
• An opportunity to serve Becca
• Little crossed ankles
• The ability to sweep multiple times a day
• Lemonade while stuffing envelopes
• Amber’s spontaneous gift
• Kate’s offers of help
• Squealing babies
• laughter
• stacking mega blocks
• 1 hour just lying on the floor with the girls.
• Having plenty in the freezer to finish an extra week with no grocery money spent
• Sewing “Princess” dresses
• Looking forward to photographing a newborn girl!
• Knocking lady bugs off my lens case
• Talking to 5th grade Chella about the true purpose of dating (finding a spouse, marriage). She was resistant, but seeds were planted. God will do the growing.
• Library borrowed NCIS to snuggle with Derek during.
• Getting 6 things at the consignment sale that would have cost me at least $185 new for a grand total of $26.50. I love the UMOM consignment sale 🙂
• Talking to so many interesting twin moms while helping with sale set-up
• Derek taking the day off to be with the girls
• Naps
• Beef 🙂
• Butternut squash soup
• A husband who is so strong in my weak areas–Remembering the girl’s medicine, changing over loads of laundry, etc. and who is so willing to serve me in those ways
• Carol flat on her face in joyful prayers
• Turning cartwheels at SCORE
• Catching up with Autumn and offering her encouragement about the 1st trimester blues
• Rest. Sweet Rest.
• Strawberry season
• Meeting Terry-Jo (so sorry if I get your name wrong) a blog reader sent here to read about food allergies
• Canned Tuna
• Grace even when I’m faithless
• Grace-filled courage
• Swimming Laps
• A husband who gets up at night with me
• Pumpernickel bread at the Church for free
• Honey butter slathered
• Nursery workers
• An unexpected bronwyn Please
• Bronwyn scrawls all over my gratitude journal
• Hearing peepers
• Renewing my drivers license for 10 years
• Bologna and cheese sandwich: a taste of childhood
• Tree flower petals falling like snow
• 18 months with my precious girls
• So much fun at the living history farm volunteering
• Girls running crazy circles through the cabin and the yard
• Bronwyn cuddling with Mary in the cabin
• Calling an impromptu Scottish dance
• Aeralind laying on a bed of ticking, cuddling a rag doll exhausted.
• No self- destruction despite being up one hour after usual nap time
• Graham crackers
• Long, long nap from the exhausted babies
• Catching up with Jen and Abel
• Chick-fil-a with friends
• Laughing at girls with bendy straws
• Jen hugs
• Redoing shots I missed at a newborn shoot
• Grace from the family involved
• Talking to Ali and seeing her maturity in a hard decision
• Snuggling with a very gassy Bronwyn
• Watching their vocabulary explode
• Wondering when their verbal skills will catch up to their auditory skills
• Aeralind following complex 2 step instructions with glee
• The bathtub- I can’t imagine conquering some of these blow-outs without warm running water
• Ripe pears
• Cheery blossoms
• Blueberry covered babies
• Orange Shoes
• Frozen Meals defrosted
• 1st coat of primer on cabinet doors
• Inexpensive fruit at the farmers market
• Browning “blowing” her nose
• Planted peas and beans coming up in the garden
• Volunteer pumpkins (?) and tomatoes coming up in the garden.  Volunteers always do so much better than transplants.
• Slurping spaghetti noodles as a family
• Reassuring hugs and prayers from my husband
• Best, most helpful, long suffering, hysterical husband in the whole wide world!

#1631-1641

• 2 coats of primer on the cabinets
• Tinted primer– helped us decide that our intial color choice was too light
• Derek sanding cabinet doors
• Hiking with the girls. They actually stay on the trail and walk at a pretty good clip.
• Bare legs in skirts
• Visit from Ali
• Little girls stomping in puddles
• Sleeping in
• Toddler hugs
• Best most helpful husband ever
• Katie helping me print/cut flyers