Blessings in Disguise

Today I can't help but look at where our lives have led us. Joshua and I have been married for only three short years and looking back to where we were, compared to now...is really amazing to me. Our first year of marriage we had an apartment, then we got a bigger one when we found out we were expecting a baby. 7 months into the pregnancy I had to quit my job due to bedrest (which is not as fun as I had thought it would be). With less income, and medical bills as big as a mountain, my parents came to our rescue with a room for me, my husband, and our baby. We tried so desperately to be able to stand on our own two feet when we first moved in. We put all of our practically brand new furniture up online for sale, I called my job 2 weeks after I gave birth and said I was ready to come back, but no matter how hard we tried... our desperate attempts failed. The Lord had other plans for us. I didn't understand the plans then, but they are finally being realized now, and it took me two years to come to terms as to why we weren't going anywhere fast.
BLESSING IN DISGUISE # 1: As it turned out, most of my side of the family all wound up in the same city, all within a few miles of each other. Josh and I only have one car which he of course takes to work, so the fact that I have family members so close to take me to Christopher's doctor appointments has worked out wonderfully!
BLESSING # 2: Another bonus is that we live with my parents and have never had to pay for a babysitter. Money has been tight, but for the dates we have been able to go on, my family has been more than willing to watch Christopher.
BLESSING # 3: A greedy bonus...we got to keep our brand new furniture! I don't know if I'm just being sentimental here or what, but I'm very proud of the couches we have. They were our first big purchase we made as a couple with our savings money. I'm in love with the fact that we saved money from both of our incomes at one point in time and were able to live within our means.
BLESSING # 4: Because of the location of my parents' house, we searched around the same area and found the apartment we will soon be moving into. On November 23 we will once again be able to stand on our own two feet. We will be by family, with our furniture, and Christopher will have his own room for the first time.
I'm so full of gratitude for the many many many blessings in disguise that I have experienced! I know that I'm not fully aware of everything we have been blessed with, but I'm trying to recognize them more often now. The Lord is leading us, he has always been leading us but at times I have been too stubborn and wanted to go the opposite direction to take notice of what I was being led to. I'm so grateful though that the Lord kept leading, no matter how hard I tried to pull away. I'm grateful because things are really starting to fall into place, and I thank the Lord for bringing us to this point and believing in our family.

***(Side note: Thank you to Jen Weston, Rhoda Crabb, and Erika Miller for reading my blog and commenting! I appreciate your support! I'm not too computer savvy and still haven't figured out how to "follow" someone's blog. Pathetic I know. But shoot me your home addresses so we can stay connected that way too!)***

Goodnight everyone!

Day 1

Day one...success! I was tempted to get on the computer, especially when Christopher was content with watching one of his preschool shows on tv. However, instead of walking away, I decided to watch his shows with him and just enjoy being in that moment. As the day progressed I couldn't believe how much I had been missing! Cute smiles, excitement over a little book, this had all been taking place as I had (in the past) been consumed in my emails and facebook account. I don't think it's right to beat myself up about it, but it sure made me more grateful for the day we shared together.
Besides enjoying a riveting show of Sesame Street, Christopher helped me go through some of his old toys. I know this may sound like a more polite way of saying I cleaned while my son stayed close by, but not so. We emptied out the toy basket in the family room and there you have it, a make-shift basketball hoop. Christopher and I took turns throwing toys in the basket, and then taking them back out again. No official score was taken, but I'm convinced he's a better shooter than I am.

Also as a side note: I am so in love with my husband and for the life we have together. Speaking of which, my sweet Josh just got home from work and I can't wait to spend my evening with him over a bowl of ice cream (because calories don't count on the weekend, right?) and some fun Friday night shows.

Goodnight family and friends!

The Detox

Hello friends and family! This is my very first time writing a blog and I'm not exactly sure what the typical first time post is suppose to say, so I'm just going to say thank you. Thank you for taking interest in our family and for your love. It really means a lot to me.
Now, I would like to explain the purpose of my blog. I have a confession to make...I have become addicted to the internet. I like to read about old friends and distant family members. As fun as this is for me, I'm starting to realize how little time I have been spending with our son, Christopher. I wanted to write this blog to not only set goals for myself, but hopefully to inspire other mothers as well. My goal? To avoid being on the internet during the day in the hopes of magnifying my calling as a stay-at-home-mom. My son means so much to me and I want our time together to be just as precious as he.
In order for me to accomplish this goal, I'm going to delete my facebook account and only blog after Christopher has gone to bed, hence the name: "The Bedtime Blog", (thanks for the idea hunny!) I still want our friends and family to know how we're doing, but not at the expense of taking time away from my son. Maybe this isn't something everyone struggles with, but I most definitely do and now I want to fix it! So lets call this...the "detoxing period".
Don't be frightened, my posts wont all be so silly. I fully intend on writing about our day to day lives, however; I will be writing after 9pm instead of 9am.

Goodnight for now!