blessed beyond measure

This is not a complaining about weather post. Because winter, well she's just fine by me. So many great things about winter. For one thing, the significant decrease in four, six, eight, and zero-legged creatures wandering around. Yeah, I'm not much of a creature fan. Basketball season, though it's over now for us, is another of winter's great attractions. Kind of bracing ourselves for when the bracket comes out in the next few weeks. The excitement is already building, and by the time it gets here, Trey may explode. Or faint or wet his pants or very literally bounce off the walls. And snow. While at times a pain, there is absolutely nothing like stuffing your belly full of soup and then drowsily look out the window to see a world covered in white. White that will slowly seep its way down through the layers of soil, nourishing and preparing it so well for the spring garden to come. And of course we love playing in the snow, though for me it has lost a bit of ...

On this birthday, here's to nine exhilarating wins this basketball season, and the inspiring leadership you give as a coach. Here's to a snow-induced ten straight days at home with your family, rasslin your boys, growing a bit stir crazy, dealing with things like a kid vomiting in the floor during lunch and a no-longer-functioning water heater, and dreaming with your wife about maybe one day having a fireplace in the kitchen. Here's to the man of God you are, and continue to become. Here's to a better husband and father to our children than I ever could have asked for. Happy birthday, Brandon. We love you!

OK. So I've been staring at the white space on the screen for almost an hour. Every few minutes writing a few words, only to delete them a moment later. See, I desperately want to share a victory in Trey's life. But to do that, I must delve pretty deeply into a stinging defeat in my own. I'm used to writing about humility. Humiliation is a different story. But lest I skip over the good news, it must be celebrated that my Trey survived participating in the second grade musical program at school. Both performances. We have known this was coming for a year, as we were told last year that he could no longer be excused from these without it affecting his music grade. All along, whenever it was brought up, he would give us the hand and say, "Not now." Definitely a step forward from Kindergarten and first grade's crying, screaming fits, but still in a different galaxy from his comfort zone. For the last two or three weeks, we have pretty much had the sam...

Precious, precious moments we're living right now. In six short months, both of my children will be in school. Excuse me while I go dream about how I'll spend my free time. And then excuse me while I go cry my eyeballs dry. How, how does one walk through this? Motherhood is such a paradox, the most beautiful, dirty, heart-wrenching, relentless, soul-filling, joyous, utterly humbling journey that life can offer. Rarely does a day go by without me laughing, crying, doubling over in pain, yelling, correcting, tickling, demonstrating, and arrow-praying, all in front of these little humans who just need me desperately. Here are but a few things from the last few weeks that I absolutely cannot allow to be forgotten, because time is only seeming to go faster with each breath. Aden at an away game. Trey made us sit on the front row, right next to the Eagles' bench, and it didn't take long for Aden to seize upon the unusual amount of space he had to, um, be himself. ...