Wit by Amanda: October 2016

Friday, October 14, 2016

September 2016

September was a great month! We started off on the beach in Seagrove for a week and it was my birthday! Started a new Bible study with some friends called BSF (Bible study fellowship). Great childcare program involved in it. Started teaching a class at church on wednesday nights. Staying pretty busy with schedules for sure! Went to our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm for a celebration. It was great! I got terribly sick for almost 5 whole days. It was awful! The fall is slowly coming in and that makes me happy.

A quote that I heard a while ago that rings true for me for sure is: "I think the best vacation is the one that relieves me of my own life for a while and then makes me yearn and long for it again".

I receive a daily devotional email from Richard Rohr and have tried to do better with reading them more lately. This one was incredible and thought it would be great to share!

We each carry a certain amount of pain from our very birth. If that pain is not healed and transformed, it actually increases as we grow older, and we transmit it to people around us. We can become violent in our attitudes, gestures, words, and actions. We must nip this process in the bud by acknowledging and owning our own pain, rather than projecting it elsewhere. For myself, I can’t pretend to be loving when inside I’m not, when I know I’ve thought cruel, judgmental, and harsh thoughts about others. At the moment the thought arises, I have to catch myself and hand over the annoyance or anger to God. Contemplative practice helps me develop this capacity to watch myself and to connect with my loving Inner Witness. Let me explain why this is important. If you can simply observe the negative pattern in yourself, you have already begun to separate from it. The watcher is now over here, observing yourself thinking that thought—over there. Unless you can become the watcher, you’ll almost always identify with your feelings. They feel like real and objective truth. Most people I know are overly identified with their own thoughts and feelings. They don’t really have feelings; their feelings have them. That may be what earlier Christians meant by being “possessed” by a demon. That’s why so many of Jesus’ miracles are the exorcism of devils. Most don’t take that literally anymore, but the devil is still a powerful metaphor, which demands that you take it quite seriously. Everyone has a few devils. I know I’m “possessed” at least once or twice a day, even if just for a few minutes! There are all kinds of demons—in other words, there are lots of times when you cannot not think a certain way. When you see certain people, you get afraid. When you see other people, you get angry. This is why all healing and prayer must descend into the unconscious where the lies we’ve believed are hidden in our wounds. During contemplation, forgotten painful experiences may arise. In such cases, it helps to meet with a spiritual director or therapist to process old wounds and trauma in healthy ways. Over a lifetime of practice, contemplation gradually helps you detach from who you think you are and rest in your authentic identity as Love. At first this may feel like an “identity transplant” until you learn how to permanently rest in God.

SOO GOOD!!

**Funny Story's of the month (I remembered to write down)**
We were picking up a lamp I bought from a website. The ladies house I picked up from her name was Jessica. When I got back in the car with the lamp...Jack said "whats that ladies name?" I said Jessica. Later down the road he said "Ambrose got a Jessica...is it the same Jessica?" haha.

#Jackamadeus - BIG BROTHER update!

Favorite color - red
Favorite food - Chic Fila!
Favorite hobby - digging in the dirt outside or playing with trains would be a close tie I believe.
Favorite song - We are in a Veggie Tales love right now.
Funny quote - I put perfume on and then jack came in and he said "you smell like ketchup"
His quirks - As of this month, he always requests a big plate and fork for mealtime. No more of that plastic kids stuff...he wants the real deal! ;)

#Francineclaire - LITTLE SIS update!

Highlight - Francine loves the color yellow! So random and so young!
Check-ups - she turned 18 months old this month and had her heart doctor checkup and pediatric checkup. Both amazing!
Her words - She is definitely gaining a vocabulary for sure. Her favorite animal is a duck and her favorite animal sound she says is the duck noise!
Sleep - The morning nap is slowly fading away this month. I thought it would be hard to hold onto with school happening and vacation
Clothes - She is in 18-24 months clothes. She wears size 4 shoes.
Diapers - Size 4 diapers!
Food - Francine is a carnivore still. She likes bread too. And fruit! Bananas are her favorite food for sure!
Skills - If I think of Francine in the moments between her fighting me on food and throwing tantrums... a real funny girl is coming out. She is beginning to be really silly and that makes me happy for sure!
Crying - We have definitely entered 2 year old temper tantrums at 17 months old. Its crazy how different boys and girls are or just every kid in general.

Until next time....here are some photos from life lately!

Late night arrival to Seagrove!

Beach babe!

Fun in the sun!

My Birthday at the beach!

Family Photo on the beach!

Family Photo on the beach! Day 2

This is our favorite place to visit as a family!

We dont want to miss a year!

Waiting to go eat dinner! Precious!

Alys beach! The best!

They road in style at the beach!

Duckies - cute toy store in Seaside!

On of our last nights on the beach!

The road trip home!

First pig tails! They didn't last long but they were real cute!

I randomly find these kinds of photos on my phone all the time!

again!

Check up time!

She did so good for the doctors!

My birthday present is my new light fixture that I love!

Fall is slowly approaching!

And long sleeve weather!

Lucy has taken up a new sport of chewing up books this month. :(

Jack and his art! :)

August 2016

In August we did some new things that we had never done before. We went to a kids museum that I heard great things about. We went to a splash pad downtown and one out in Spring Hill with some friends that was a lot of fun. We went to the Williamson County Fair...lots of fun! Also a lovely lady from church gave us tickets to a water park. We went to an amphitheater for a Michael McDonald concert. We also did a little traveling and took a road trip to Spartanburg, South Carolina. We had some house guests. The kids started Mother's Day Out (Francine's first year)! Lots of good things!

One of my favorite quotes this month I heard is "Maturity is the ability to joyfully live in an imperfect world" - Richard Rohr

A mommy quote that I took from the instagram that I feel I need to be reminded of

everyday "You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow, they'll be a little older than they were today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today mama. It will be over before you know it. " - Jen Hatmaker

**Funny Story's of the month (I remembered to write down)**
Man - we sure are getting more and more funny stories. For breakfast one morning Jack saw a box of Kashi cereal and he was trying to figure out what the shapes were. He said "Whats in this cereal...granola, blueberries and dog bones?"

We were also at a Mexican restaurant and Jack saw a guy wearing a yellow and blue striped shirt and he said "that guy kind of looks like a bumblebee"

The kicker for me this month was when I was putting Jack down for his nap and he asked "mommy what kind of things do you like about me?" I tell him dozens of things and then at the end he said "you like when I clean up my toys too right?" Man - it broke me. So we have been working on being ok with messes around here a little more because I dont want him to be a neat freak and think his mommy is only happy when she sees him picking up his toys.

#Jackamadeus - BIG BROTHER update!

Library fun!

At the fair! his first ride!

Favorite color - the whole rainbow!
Favorite number - 3 still
Favorite food - biscuits, sausage, and eggs...he is quite the southerner.
Favorite hobby - art right now for sure. He has a rolling art cart that cracks me up when he gets it out of the closet. It makes me so happy.
Favorite song - He has definitely gone secular this month and requested beyonce "put a ring on a it" quite a few times.
Funny quote - We were in Spartanburg and Jack was on our friend Phil's shoulders. He leaned down and looked at Phil and said "Do you like muffins?" It was so random and out of the blue that it made us all laugh and repeat it many more times.

#Francineclaire - LITTLE SIS update!

Pretty girl.

Homegirl is hilarious sometimes.

Highlight - Francine started her first Mothers Day Out program and she has adjusted quite well to be honest.
Her words - She is definitely gaining a vocabulary for sure.
Sleep - Great sleeper still. We thought we would be giving up the morning nap with school starting but we are not. Holding on strong.
Clothes - She is in 18-24 months clothes. She wears size 4 shoes.
Diapers - Size 4 diapers!
Food - Definitely this is our big struggle with her for sure. She knows exactly what she doesn't want to eat and seals her lips shut or just throws it on the ground. Its so great (sarcasm). We have noticed her favorite food is meat of any kind. Cant get enough!
Skills - She is becoming quite a compassionate mother to her babies (stuffed animals and dolls). She carries one around pretty much all the time.
Crying - We have definitely entered 2 year old temper tantrums at 17 months old. Its crazy how different boys and girls are or just every kid in general.