Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Emma Grace. I have been thinking a lot lately about the meaning of her name, Grace. I started a post about how God is using her in my life to teach me about grace but it feels too weighty and too personal to share right now...maybe one day I will be able to articulate all that God is doing in my life through this dear child to help me really understand grace. For now here are a few things God has been doing in my heart through her lately...

Emma Grace and I role play, ummmm, a lot. You see, I have this salon in our upstairs bathroom and everyday I (Lemonade) do the hair of whatever little girl comes in...it's usually "pink girl" but occasionally Blueberry will show up (think Strawberry shortcake characters) Emma Grace is really creative and she and I usually come up with some pretty creative hairstyles. We love them. But unfortunately one of her classmates didn't like them and it really hurt Emma Grace. I was reminded of how a teacher once told me my hair was nappy-ok, I admit, it was a little messy, but that was the 80's style I was going for and any fourth grade teacher should know better. Not bitter here, just saying, I was really hurt. Anyway, this past week Emma Grace came up with a wild idea for her hair... purple and blue braids of fake hair wrapped around her pig tails. I was a little hesitant. Honestly, I was worried about what the girl at school would say. I started to find myself suggesting other things. But then I thought, this is so silly... Emma Grace is who she is and she is expressing herself. I should be glad for the person God has made her. I think I hid my panic well enough but then EG remembered the voice at school making fun of her hair and she got really upset and started to worry about her do. I talked to her about what I wanted her to think about if that little girl said something again. "Emma Grace, I want you to remember what the Bible says about you. It says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made you just the way he wanted you and he loves how creative you are." So many times in my parenting the things I am teaching my children are the exact lessons God is wanting me, his child to learn. It was a sweet time of rejoicing in who my little one is. She is fearfully and wonderfully made. She is left handed. She likes to tell me which countries are her favorite. She currently loves Mexico, Haiti and Zimbabwe. She worries about the weather. She perfectly color coordinates her outfits everyday-girl's got style. And her shining quality that comes through in almost everything she does...She is incredibly creative.

Andy and I are really trying to encourage her creativity. (which can be tricky-one of her latest ideas was to decorate our whole house in yard sell knick kancks that she has collected) One thing we are doing to embrace her desire to create is our "craft cabinet". (the bottom half of our china cabinet...it works since we own no china) It's in our dining room and full of supplies that she can access anytime she wants. Again, tricky with a 2 year old brother. We've had one near haircut, but overall, it's going well. EG is constantly creating things-beach scenes with little drink umbrellas, homemade kites with tissue paper, cards, butterflies, puppets, puppet stages, etc. She usually comes home from school and heads straight for the craft cabinet. Recently she and I made this funky tree with homemade playdoh. It was nice until the playdoh melted.

Andy and I are often amazed at the things she comes up with. She is fearfully and wonderfully made. God, your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Recently we gave the kids a reward for filling up a stay-in-bed sticker chart. We have a terrible time keeping our kids in bed, so this was our newest attempt. It worked and they were allowed to choose their reward. We gave them a number of fun places to choose from-Chuck E Cheese and several other similar kids joints. Jack immediately decided he wanted to go to go Chuck E Cheese. EG thought for a few days and then decided that instead of all those kid places I mentioned, she preferred to go "to cafe." What she meant was she wanted to go to a book store and read books and get cafe. How adult of her! I love it. (we often say she's our 30 year old trapped in a 4 year olds body!) She and I had such a peaceful little visit to the book store. We sipped our hot teas, had pumpkin cheesecake, and read books while Andy braved Chucky's with Jack on a Saturday! I was glad I got to take EG! She and I are so alike. Andy laughs at how I love to hang out in artsy coffee shops. So glad I have a pal to go with me now!

Jack Attack

From Foreclosure to Home

This Thursday we cranked back up on "Project Foreclosure." Andy and I had taken a break for a few weeks from working on our house and are finally starting to get into some semblance of a routine. (think it's been about 18 months since we had a real routine) Anyway, we called in some back up and made quite a bit of progress continuing the transformation of our foreclosure into a home! The main man on the job was Tim and he worked from the moment he got here! He brought the know how on most of the projects we did...

Andy did the grunt work. I provided a long long list of projects I wanted them to do.And this little one brought the creative flair! We were quite a team!

We sprayed, painted, potted, dug, rearranged, cleaned, dumped, sanded, scrubbed, bought, built, spread, corrected my painting mistakes, and did a good deal of eating. (Tim also doubled as Chef for the weekend. YUM-MY!!!)

One of my favorite projects was the back patio, formerly the concrete slab behind our house! Tim picked yellow as the accent color and it totally works! Yellow pillows to come!

There's not much that a can of black spray paint can't fix, in the words of my mother in law!

My favorite part was potting some plants. It's really starting to feel like a home! Thanks Tim for all your hard work!

One Day

One Day we'll have grass. And a repaired fence. And a freshly painted front door. But for now, we're trying to enjoy our home for what it is and take advantage of the giant dirt pit that is our front yard!

Labor Day Fun

This weekend we enjoyed a HOT Labor Day celebration. I was remembering last year's celebration with Tim and Kathi in North Myrtle and how I sat out early in the morning and got my first taste of fall. No tastes of fall here-we're still smack dab in the middle of summer. We went to the beach with a group of Chinese Scholars who just arrived in the US! So fun!

Emma Grace caught a big fish! We had "shao kao" ( lots and lots of grilled meat!) It was yummy.

Jack enjoying his Labor Day treat, a Sprite!

I guess I should've communicated that we usually wear swimsuits at the beach. Most of our freinds didn't have/didn't bring theirs. We'll work on proper attire next time! We still had lots of fun.

Ray and Denise's first time to see the Ocean!

Since we didn't have the right beach attire, we decided to just take a cruise. HEHE. We can dream! Jack espcially loved seeing all the cruise ships coming in and out!

Life

In two weeks I've lost two shirts to blood stains. Jack with the gash on this face and now Emma Grace with her nose dive into the side of the toilet. She had a major bloody nose and is now sporting quite a bruised and swollen honker! Thankfully for me, Andy was home when both of these happened. I am no good with trauma, blood, guts, etc.

Our house is coming along. S-L-O-W-L-Y. Just decided on "chocolate" for our main bathroom downstairs and Andy and I spent quite a bit of time hanging pictures last night. Now the only things left are painting all the trim and doors, decorating the entry way, dining room, buying a bed for the guest room, hanging more pictures, the yard, the yard and the yard, and about a gazillion other projects. Good thing we're going to be here for a while! If you were a fly on the wall, you'd definitely hear me ask Andy "did we make a good decision in buying this house?" about 10 times a day. He reminds me how we prayed and God led us to this house and he keeps saying...think long term, babe. I am way to short sighted for all this. But I am digging the pictures we hung last night and the chocolate paint color.

Jack and Grapes are doing really well in school so far. I think they both enjoy it for different reasons. EG's favorite part is the crafts and the learning. Jack loves the friends and the snacks and his loving teacher.

We had a blast yardselling with our Chinese friends! Success! We got the table they needed and EG scored quite a few gifts along the way. She is majorly into knick knacks. I like to say she has a knack for knick knacks and we are running out of room for them! The shu shu's and Ayi's were very generous and bought her quite a few. She decorated when we got home and said she's gonna be a decorator when she grows up. She's a Kathi Huffman in the making.

Jack is loving his new bike. Loving it! He is so naturally athletic, like my brother. I often wonder what God will do with that gift he gave him...???!!!

I've been thinking a lot about sharing in Christ's sufferings here on this earth and sharing in his resurrection. I want to see resurrection in so many areas in my life and the lives of my little ones. AND I WANT IT HERE, NOW. But that's not the reality of living in a fallen, broken world. Today, I had the thought that sharing in his sufferings here on this earth, really really does make me long for the resurrection that is to come. Oh, I can't wait for our sin and sickness and our sufferings to be taken away. Oh, I can't wait. CAN'T WAIT.

Enjoying highs being in the upper 80's. Good bye hot 90's, hello September. Time to break out the Christmas Music.