Wit by Amanda: 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.