EDM: Something Ceramic

This is a teapot I picked up at my mom’s garage sale.  I had never seen it before but swiped it up.  It has six tiny teacups and a piece for sugar that I drew the first time I started Every Day Matters.  I’m not sure what happened to the creamer.  Maybe this set is from our ancestors, but most likely it was on clearance at Sears in 1970.  Especially since my mom was selling it for, like, $2.00 and is a maniac about heirlooms.  MANIAC!  I’m kidding.  haha!  Love you, mom!  

(No really, she’s a maniac)

EDM: Thankful, Part 3

dt is by the computer about 99% of his life.  He taught me everything I know.

I wrote this a few years back and it still holds true.  Marriage can be so hard, but God gave me the wonderful gift of my husband.  He brings a focus and devotion I’m not sure anyone deserves!  He is amazing.  Probably TMI for the internet, but I want everyone to know how much I love this man and how honored I am to share this life with him.

To my husband:

There was a time when I thought marriage was all gooey love, waking up in each other’s arms, road trips, happiness, midnight kisses, with some funny little newlywed-like spats in between.

Of course I always knew I was making a commitment.  But the part of me that had never had a relationship longer than 2 years (let alone made a commitment to start a life long journey with another human being) just didn’t understand the true magnitude of that decision.  Back then the naive girl in me thought that sure there would be problems in a marriage but, as long as we maintained a positive attitude, we’d be fine.  (I say naive because a 22 year old girl just doesn’t know the kinds of curve balls life can really throw at you.)

The foundation of my thoughts were true… but what I didn’t realize back then was that sometimes the stress in life really does come in between people who love each other.  That because we’re human and have sin, we’d hurt each other deeply and, tragically, those hurts don’t go away very easily.  And they can build on top of each other   That, because of stress and hurt and circumstances beyond our control, sometimes you just can’t maintain a positive attitude.  That sometimes you’d have to hunker down and decide to love a person you don’t particularly like.  And there are times when you decide to stay committed and half-heartedly maintain your vows and hope things get better.

We’ve been married for 7 years now and I know the last 3 have been the hardest. During those 3 years we’ve dealt with unemployment, financial problems, depression, in-law and family hurts/issues, and just too many years of infertility.  That’s a lot of pain, hurt and stress for 3 years   And because of it we had huge fights, built major resentment, and have really come to our breaking point.  I just don’t think most marriages go through that much in such a short time.

“Okay I get it. Where is this going,” you ask?

Well, I’m just wanting to say, with our 7th anniversary fast approaching, that I’m so proud of us.  We have seriously had our marriage tested like I never imagined. And now here we are – dedicated, focused, and still totally in love with each other.  Tested, but happy.  

Because of all this, I know we’ll have an even more fulfilling life together.  I’ve found this period of trials has strangely been a godsend… because there’s power in knowing we’ve been through a huge rough patch.  We’ve gotten through it before and, with God’s help, we can manage if it happens again… and can actually be stronger than before.  And that’s exactly where I see us now.  There’s not anything that can separate us as long as we hold true to our commitment before God.

I loved you when I married you, but when I see the depth that our love will/can go, when I see the true commitment we have for each other… I realize how I barely loved you back then.  The girl I was not only was naive about commitment – she was naive about the true depths of love.

Thank you for living this life with me.  I love you more than ever.

EDM: Thankful, Part 2

God blessed us with Jr 7 1/2 years ago.  Since then life has never been dull.  Need proof?

Jr is spunky, strong-willed yet loving and compassionate.  One of my biggest challenges as a mother is dealing with other people not being quite so accepting of him – not seeing what an amazing child is standing right in front of them.  It’s frustrating but makes me fight for him even harder.  I’m sure God would have taken care of Jr for me, but part of me believes I’m here to fight hard, cheer him on and bring calm, loving acceptance.  

When God created me he made me with an independent spirit – I tend to challenge authority (sorry Mom & Dad) as well as the status quo which can be frustrating and oddly lonely.  But I’ve seen that come in handy as I became an advocate for Jr.  I’ve never thought twice about taking all of the adhd advice from one person – of course we would look at ALL options and WE would make the decisions for our son – not someone who really didn’t care about him.  I never believed only the teacher’s side of things, who was extremely biased.  I had to take her thoughts into consideration, sure.  But mostly I needed to listen to Jr and how he felt about things.  Thank you, Lord for using me to be here to fight for my son – and to love him like only a mother can.

Psalm 33:20-22

 20 We wait in hope for the LORD; 

       he is our help and our shield.

 21 In him our hearts rejoice, 
       for we trust in his holy name.

 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, 
       even as we put our hope in you.

When I asked Jr if there was one thing he wanted me to draw — he came up with an elaborate Star Wars battle scene.  Um, well, it wasn’t going to happen.  So he chose this droid as his favorite.  

 

Since he was 2 1/2 years old, Jr has been a huge Star Wars fan and I don’t anticipate it letting up.  What’s funny is I get excited about things for him now.  I was stoked when I saw The Clone Wars movie… and when I heard they were making a CN show from it I couldn’t wait to tell him when he came home from school!  I love you Jr and can’t wait for many more lightsaber battles! But, you know, watching you and Daddy – I gave up lightsabers a long time ago.

EDM: Thankful, Part 1

Every Day Matters Draw something you are thankful for will be a three parter!  Lucky you!  I don’t know why you’re lucky, but just roll with me.

This quote helps explain why I need 3 days to cover “thankful”:  

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you?” -William A. Ward

So I’ve been thinking a lot about Baby Bear’s birth lately since he’s almost a year old.  I keep thinking things like “About a year ago, this is when I started not feeling well.” and “Oh yeah, last Halloween I forced myself to get up and go trick or treating…”  and I’m sure as we get closer to the day it will continue and you’ll have to bare with me talking about it.  (sorry.)

There’s something strange about looking back at the miracle of birth/life mixed with the fear of death.  There is a strange sense of sadness of what might have been, mixed with intense gratitude of what I have been given.  I came thisclose to not making it through Baby Bear’s delivery due to HELLP Syndrome.  The delivery was extremely difficult (pitocin + no epideral + uterine scraping = horrible).  Afterwards, I was in surgery for 2 hours and had 6 units of blood because they couldn’t stop the bleeding.  I was wheeled off afraid and wondering if I’d see my husband and children again, my baby was in the NICU 6 weeks early being poked and prodded, and my husband and family were waiting in tears truly afraid they lost me.  Not our best day.

But, Oh God, out of uncertainty and fear comes such an intense thankfulness I just cannot describe.  When I first opened my eyes, saw my husband and heard his sweet, “Hey….” a tear rolled down the side of my face as I reached out to hold his hand.  To hear his voice again.  Thankfulness.  

They rolled me up to see my baby in the middle of the night, still weak from loss of blood and groggy from the events of the day.  To see the curve of his back under the warming lamp with my own eyes and touch the softness of his tiny hand through the lines of wires.  To know I could experience life with Baby Bear – hold him, feed him, sing to him.  Thankfulness.

I spent a good hour the next day playing hangman with Jr, who had no idea he almost lost his Mommy.  That was the most awesome game of Hangman I have or ever will play.  To look into his eyes and know I could watch him grow – at least for today.  Thankfulness.

Every moment is worth being thankful for…  Every single moment.  It has truly changed my perspective… especially about my family.  So I will be giving them each one day of Thankful.  I just can’t narrow it down into one item.

So without further ado…

 

I’m thankful to be able to watch Baby Bear grow and flourish into a sweet baby boy.  Every day is a treasure – sometimes a poopy treasure, or a tired treasure but a treasure all the same. This is one of his balls that he loves to chase around the house now that he’s a crawling maniac.  He tires me out, but Lord, I’m so truly thankful!  

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 

2 Worship the LORD with gladness; 
       come before him with joyful songs.

 3 Know that the LORD is God. 
       It is he who made us, and we are his ^[a] ; 
       we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving 
       and his courts with praise; 
       give thanks to him and praise his name.

 5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; 
       his faithfulness continues through all generations.

EDM: Landmark

Texans are serious about their BBQ, and Austin loves Rudy’s.  

I can’t drop everything and sketch the place with 2 kids in the car so I decided to do take out after picking dt up from work.  Number one lesson in parenting:  Bcome flexible.  If you don’t, your kids will force you to become flexible anyway.  

Here is their lovely cup:

 

 

And some pictures while we were there…

The front:

Apparently Thursday at 5:00 isn’t a busy time for Rudy’s.  We walked past the gas station out front and then past the aisles of convenience store candy/chips and then made it to the fold-out chairs and picnic tables.   That’s when Jr said, “Wow!  This place is fancy!”  Hmm… maybe we need to take him out a little bit more…

They have an automatic handwasher that tickles as it sprays water and soap.  Next time we may skip the BBQ and just get a good handwashing.

Real People Eat Meat out on the patio

After dealing with one too many crazy people and promising myself never to work in customer service again – I just had to take a picture.  :)  I would’ve made a fortune!

You can’t see anything about Rudy’s in this picture, but here’s Baby Bear.  Isn’t he the cutest, sweetest little baby ever!?  He just makes my heart melt. 

EDM: Folds

Doesn’t he make you want to go “Awwwww!”  This is Baby Bear’s lovey.  Aunt Jamie brought it and a big fat Preemie Book to the hospital when I was recouping after his crazy birth.  It’s smooshy and soft and he loves to grab it, pull it close and rub his face into it.  He will giggle when he sees it, especially when he’s tired.  He also sucks on his ears… so we’ll see what those look like in a few years.  

For now, his name is Teddy but one of these days Baby Bear may want to give it a name of his own… like Wally or Booma or Steve.  You never know what kids will come up with – my neice had a fish she called Ning-Ning.  (Correct me if I’m wrong Jamie, that doesn’t seem completely right.)  Nobody really knows why but made perfect sense to her.

Enjoy our little fella today!

EDM: Toothbrush

Wow.  Well, I feel like we’ve crossed some special moment in our relationship, internet.

And look!  It looks like my colgate toothbrush must’ve just had puppies!

EDM: Halloween

 

Halloween

We pull this out with all of our Halloween decorations every year.  Jr was a puppy for his first year and looks so teeny.  The things on top are bobbily pumpkins on springs.  You might not be able to tell from this angle.

Coming up:  Draw your toothbrush

(I’m skipping the month long challenge to draw at a museum.  Like, what?  Every day?!  That would be great, but, good lord, who has the time?!)

Every Day Matters

Okay, I’m picking up where I left off of the Every Day Matters Challenge.  Here are the ones I have already done.  Some obviously are better than others.

keys

public

bike

leaf

eye

metallic

chair

collect

anything – soap

anything – lipstuff

book

anything

glass

fruit

clothing

vintage

father’s day

something made

window

instrument

Tool

leaves

morning view

phone

dinner

glasses

hand

organized chaos

jewelry

bottle

favorite thing

bed

mug

purse

lamp

shoe

My favorites are Lucy (of course), the ice cream scoop and the chair.  Coming up:  Draw something related to Halloween, All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints, etc.