johnny jump-up: fun for the whole family

don't worry, marit and graham weigh about the same. marit missed out on this when she was the appropriate age due to day-time brace wearing. she is making up for lost time!

product review: merona double layer shirts

i haven't done any product reviews lately, but as i have revamped my wardrobe after being pregnant for two summers straight, i came across these fabulous shirts at target. i love them because they are soft, double layered in the front to add modesty, long enough to cover my whole torso, and they are on sale for $8 right now( normally $9.99). they come in a variety of bright or neutral colors and vary from ballet neck, gathered scoop neck, v-neck, short sleeve and sleeveless. they are really great! check them out if you need some cheap wardrobe help.

don't wallow!

my parent's four beautiful grandchildren

 

 

"there's no crying in baseball!"

i'm trying to continually imagine tom hanks yelling this at me except substituting the word "baseball" for "residency" or "intern-year." though i do whine occasionally on here, i am resolving to keep it to a minimum. discontentment can easily rise up in any season of life because on this side of the jordan, frustrations and broken-ness abound. and broken-ness is not just around me, but also in me and so my tendency (and probably yours too) is to want what i do not have, to seek satisfaction and joy things and circumstances other than Christ. we knew residency was going to be hard and so we are not surprised that the first two weeks have been a bludgeoning of sorts. just try to imagine me speaking/writing with an optimistic overtone because i can't help but talk about it...affects most things right now. it is going to look like 80-90 hours of work for adam most weeks and pretty stressful work at that. it is going to look like me figuring out how to do a lot of things on my own with both kids...many events, exercise (can't do anything that i can't do with a jogging stroller), travel, repairs around the house (i think i might try to paint the kitchen after the kids go to bed some night this week), pretty much all the care of munchkin a and b day and many nights. i am not complaining. promise. but do pray for us, for our marriage, for our family. pray for grace to abound...we are both tired when we are finally together and it is easy at those times to be over-sensitive, critical, and tense. i struggle not to worry about becoming "disconnected" and often my cloud of worry can steal the little time we do have together. the gracious thing about residency is that it changes every month...even if the next month is still hard, it might be different hard. we were able to squeeze in a desperately needed date this weeekend (thanks dave and carol!) and a small birthday party for marit next weekend on adam's post-call day (hope he can stay awake for it:)). anyway, that's all, by the grace of God i resolve not to whine...ok? help keep me accountable?

a little humor for your day

farewell molly

well, we are once again petless. we have not been in this state since july of 2004. while the kids and i were out of town with my parents to allow adam time to adjust to residency, our wonderful and nearly perfect kitty molly was hit by a car. this is sad on a number of levels...marit loved her and molly and marit followed each other around and snuggled together (marit earned molly's affections with many cat treats). also, molly was seriously the most low-maintenance pet i have ever had. she house trained herself once we moved to a place with a yard. she really did not have any vices, except the occasional howl for a treat. she will be missed for sure. i know the best way to get over the loss of a pet is to get another one soon after (we lost many pets in my childhood). we just are not sure what we want to do...two kittens? a dog? no pets for a while?