a little more progress

i suppose it would be more dramatic if i waited until this project was fully completed and posted a final picture. however, my sweet and super busy husband has worked SO hard to basically build a bathroom and i want to notice all the steps. the floor is done, molding in, sheet rock hung and painted, plumbing done, wiring done. let me tell you, installing the toilet and washer and drier is no small step to me. i am soooo thankful that the laundry isn't piling up anymore and that i can now put away that little potty that i am oh so tired of cleaning out (marit almost always has to have a number 2 right before she falls alseep at night) because we once again have an upstairs toilet!! go husband! i think the tiling job my dad helped adam do looks great too.

the sink will go where those pipes are and the tub is on the right and hopefully will begin to be tiled and walled in this weekend...

a reminder

you may have seen this on facebook or somewhere, but i want to put it here to remind myself. what a sweet blessing marriage is and how much work and toil is necessary and the Lord uses it as a wonderful refuge to restore and keep us centered.

so refreshed

for the second time since we have had children, adam and i snuck away by ourselves. leaving our precious children in the capable hands of my brother and sister-in-law, we took ourselves to charleston for 2whole days and nights of resting and reconnecting. it was such perfect timing. before we left, adam would have described himself as oh so tired, pale, flat, disconnected, just plain weary. he just finished a rotation in the icu and night float and it felt like we had only had real conversations just a couple of times in the last six weeks. i just felt frazzled to my core. i've been so emotional, sleepless, fearful, and physically in pain (adam told me during one of our middle of the night conversations that i have a radiculopathy of one of my lumbar nerves that just gets a little worse as the babe in my belly gets a little heavier). a nap was one of the first things on our agenda and my back immediately felt pain-free for the first time in quite a while. every mom knows that pain makes it harder to be a patiently loving and consistent mama as well and so i had been struggling with my guilt over this as well. after a little rest, adam was back to himself cracking fairly dumb jokes and whistling.
we stayed in a lovely b+b (our favorite type of lodging) on the harbor

breakfast of champions meant lunch was not required!


watched the pelicans fly over us and the lightning storm from the porch





we talked so much, did a little swimming (i did not realize how much i sink when i'm pregnant!), wandered, rested, rested, rested, talked, talked, ate some yummy food. i love a restaurant in an old house like this one:

especially when the food is like this:


we talked a lot about adam's future-fellowship or no fellowship and for the moment, he is back on the "no" side of the fence. we talked a lot about the tension in our dear little neighborhood, talked about our sin-patterns and grace.

we read ourselves to sleep at night...ah luxury! we went and saw a movie for the first time in 2 years-Inception-we talked about that a good bit too...interesting concepts. we talked about the little one to come in just 2 short months...a 30.5week belly

we missed marit and graham (and pax!) so much and we were glad to return, but what a blessing to focus a little on our marriage and to be restored and rejuvenated to get back to the grindstone again. thank you so much tom and kelly for serving us so sacrificially! love you guys! today is day one of graham being a big boy and tossing the pacifier...he's napping without much trouble now so that's a good start!

a typical morning really

i'm not sure how adam has so much energy after working all night. everyone is just so glad to see each other and i love that our downstairs is one big circle...so chasing is just natural.

(if you are viewing this in facebook, you have to click "view original post" to see video)

oh so scattered

time for a somewhat scattered post. my thoughts have not been organized lately. i'm at that place in my pregnancy (2 months from being term!) and in the summer (ridiculously hot) that just makes me want to nap all the time and drink lots of cold water. we just finished one of adam's hardest months of training to date and now we are on to night float. my patience wanes, my heart is heavy with sorrow over my own sin that causes a fight before husband and i are even fully awake, my sin that causes me to snap at my children. we fight fear and frustration as tensions mount in our neighborhood and angry words are shouted at all hours of the day and night. we pray for grace, redemption, justice, mercy. on Sunday we sang "This Is My Father's World"

The final verse made me weep and brought a measure of hope and peace to my heart.

This is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget that thought the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world: the battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heav'n be one.

how quickly i forget Who is really sovereign over all things, the One who will heal racism, the One who will redeem broken lives, the One who has paid the price for my sin and has pointed me in another way...i just need His grace every day to remember and to walk in Him and near to the cross.

i rejoice as changes happen in the lives of family and friends, but saddened as they will be farther from us. my brother moved to India. other dear, dear friends leave the church and still others prepare to move overseas. my life isn't really changing all that much, but it is so sad to say goodbye though we are excited about the Lord's work in and through all of them. a few people have come nearer though...my sister moved back from nyc! other sweet friends are renovating the house next door to us and we are so totally excited about them being so close come fall.

there are some good things about night float:
-i don't have to make the bed (though i actually like that chore) because someone is almost always sleeping in it
-it is easier to share our one car...poor adam has some sort of painful crick in his neck that has made biking rather uncomfortable
-he is usually awake and home to enjoy the kids around the time that i make dinner so that i can do so without the constant removal of hands from hot places, messy places, interruptions to referee various interactions etc.

the hardest part is that there is absolutely no time for adam and i to have a conversation by ourselves until the weekend. but guess what? thanks to my sweet bro and sis-in-law, we are going to skip town for two whole nights at the end of this rotation and before this little one arrives. i am so excited, but i feel like i need to make a list of discussion topics or something so we make the most use of our talking time. i will try not to view the weekend as a business meeting, but seriously, there is SO much to talk about! adam is strongly leaning toward a critical care fellowship after residency and i am supportive, but the decision is so huge and has to be made fairly soon.

our project is trucking along at a snail's pace. my sweet parents came this weekend to work on adam's one day off and adam and dad tiled until midnight.
it still lacks a row and grouting, but progress is slowly being made. meanwhile, we have a toilet in our room waiting to be installed, the sink is stashed in the kids room, tile is spread around the house, sheet-rock and lumber fill our hall and tools are everywhere. adam said if we ever buy another house, it will be new. i think he was being dramatic, but since i really love old houses (even still!) i guess we will just have to make this one work indefinitely.

graham got his first haircut today. it was getting a little mulletish...

both my kids were bald-and i love that-until nearly two.

marit still hasn't had a cut though she wanted one after seeing graham's. she was appeased with a special combing.


we made these cookies tonight since i had to use the oven for dinner anyway. have i mentioned i've been cooking a lot in my toaster oven to keep down the heat in our kitchen since our power bill was staggering last month...just been so hot. i remind myself of my mom when i cook in the toaster-she's resourceful. anyway, the kids love these and they are pretty healthy and they both love to dip their cookies in our milk now. however, graham dips, eats the dry part of his cookie, dips again while the cookie starts to fall apart.


it makes a mess, but just about everything at this stage does. try them out! they make a great midnight snack for dr honey bunny and his pregnant wife who has trouble settling down at night.

here are a few other random pictures from lately. marit still chatters non-stop. sometimes, i have to gently say:"stop talking for a minute so i can make a decision" and graham is quickly adding words to his vocabulary as well. he has been "saying" things for quite some time, but we are finally beginning to understand some of it now. i think this relieves him a bit, though he does have his frustrated moments still. marit too...they seem to face big emotions and need help to learn self-control and cheerfulness. oh my! it can be tedious, but then they both give the best snuggliest hugs. and they enjoy each other so much now (though they need much coaching about kind ways to interact) and they don't seem to know what to do without each other. i hope they are friends forever...a sweet built-in buddy for them throughout life.
ball-throwing pose...he has quite an arm!

well-loved

we are well-loved by this mongrel. we call him lummox sometimes. pax has turned into a wonderful pet. maybe my favorite ever and i have had a LOT of pets in my lifetime.
here he is with my sister who just moved back to town. WOOOHOOO!!

basket o' cuteness