Right Where We Want To Be

Thankfulness abounds here these days.  Don't get me wrong: I've had many a LORD-SAVE-ME-FROM-THIS-MONOTONY moments, but the overall theme of this season has been thankfulness.  For the sake of looking back on this post years from now, here's the basic synopsis of this spring: social distancing/isolation due to the COVID-19 unknowns.  The world is an eerie place with so much closed down and strict guidelines of keeping the hell away (min. 6ft.) from any passersby, whether on the sidewalk or the grocery aisle.  In fact, leaving your home at all is frowned upon altogether.  

Despite all this -- really, because of all this -- our thankfulness (referring to my immediate family's thankfulness) has only increased.  We're thankful for this land we found and built a house on 2 years ago because it gives us all the space we need to run around and find adventure and fun without the concern of running into others (see, what an eerie idea that is, amiright?).  We're thankful that our "crazy" idea of stacking pregnancies one right after another has turned into the sweetest best friend group of playmates who, though they certainly miss their friends, are totally content with their time with each other.  We're thankful that Pete's job is secure and he's been encouraged to work remotely often, which has absolutely spoiled us -- we love having Daddy around more!  A happy marriage, good-natured children, a freezer full of meat (mostly courtesy of our on-site Hunter-Gatherer), actualy SPRING WEATHER (!!!) Pete's before-it-was-trendy prepping tactics, and a billion other little things elicit thankfulness above all other emotions-- thankfulness to each other, but mostly to the Lord for using this dreary season to draw this out of us.

I've got more on what I've been mulling over down at the bottom of this post, but I'll break up my stream of consciousness with some pics from the past few months and some kid tidbits in between:

BLOKUS has been a fun, new addition to our games.  Our mantra each time the box comes out is, "TAKE DOWN DADDY!  TAKE DOWN DADDY!" because Pete is merciless.  This particular night, Pete was gone, so me and the kids thought we'd up our strategy a little bit with some practice.  You can see here how focused some of us were.

Me and the girls had a GIRL DAY back in January where we stopped at a donut shop (pictured) and went to Target where we learned the tough lesson of "we don't just buy things to buy things."

As mentioned above, Pete began prepping long before the coronavirus warnings.

The 2 biggest kids have had the best time going to Awana at a church around the corner from us.  Two of their best friends, Robin and Kole Rice, go every week with them while the littles and grownups get to spend time together.  Absolutely one of our favorite things from 2019-2020.

Back in January, I hosted a brunch at the house for women called a "Regift Exchange."  It was SUCH a good time -- 30 women from all different groups I'm a part of (I invited 50...hehe) came to regift something they'd been gifted that they didn't want while eating and visiting.  Definitely an annual tradition now!

These are Susannah's best friends from school, Jane and Georgia.  They're so precious together!

Poor Clark hasn't sold out to the Redskins just yet

Clark's first time in the grocery cart back in February!

 

We surprised our cousins at their basketball games earlier this spring and brought the SPIRIT!

Poor Than kept looking over at John during his game because he really just wanted to play with his cousin, not a dumb basketball!

True statement for all these little cousins looking up to their role model, Charis.

Susannah's 100th Day of School costume was on point.

On our way to Auburn back in February, we stopped in Greenville to see Katie, Brian, and Addie.

 

Back on the Rolling Plains with the whole crew!  Pete had a conference there this year, and once we heard about it, we were all sold out and absolutely going with him.  

We stayed with my fam the Northcutts who we all love so much.  Those 3 big kids are obsessed with Melissa and Van and are ready to go back to do nothing other than play with them.

Spent too much money on new Auburn t-shirts before we left.

 

THIS FACE ON THIS BOY

Susannah is all about the portraits right now, and she is sure to include my "expression lines" on my forehead every time.

Special relationship with our oldest and youngest

These 2 generally have a special relationship, too

Sleeping on me is such a rare thing for these kids, so I absolutely asked Pete to take a picture of it to capture the moment!

And thus begins the pics of quarantine to present.  Shortly after the governor called off school for the rest of the year, our elementary school planned a car parade of all the teachers to come around to see as many kids as could be out on their route (while maintaining that 6ft distance from others).  We have some wonderful friends who were going to be in the parade who let us use their front yard since they definitely would not be driving out to where we live.  It was sooooo sweet to see the excitement of both the teachers and the kids to see their teachers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Happy hour during COVID-19 looks like this: 6+ ft radius separation outdoors with wine, booze, and lysol wipes in the center.

Picnic lunch for Mary's 3rd birthday!

Lunch was real fun for this guy until I taped down Clark's plate

Formal dinner for Mary's 3rd Birthday!  The sweetest day celebrating our youngest girl with the biggest personality.

Sweeties

Susannah dressed up as Barbara Badjokes.  Who is Barbara Badjokes, you ask?  Keep scrolling...

Every Friday, Susannah has "Cookies With Cotten," which is a time her teacher, Ms. Cotten, has set up for all the kids in her class to get on Zoom together.  You can see there are 2 other participants each week who don't necessarily make an appearance on the screen.

I slacked this year and did not come up with an Easter basket for Clark to match the rest!

This is what church looks like for the kids (and us) right now: SCREEN TIME!  Screen time is rare around here, even during COVID, so this has been kinda cool for them -- though they've all said they miss going  to church so bad.  We all do so bad.

Easter Sunday!  Everyone still dressed up.  Well, not Pete, but that's why he's not in any pictures.

Gorillas are John's current obsession.  Gorillas and volcanoes, actually.  Pictured here, John and Mary are on the lookout for any gorillas that may have escaped the Norfolk Zoo and made their way to our house to bust down our door and beat us up.  Our conversations about gorilla come up totally randomly about once a week and go like this: "How far away is the closest gorilla?  Where do the rest of them live?  If a gorilla were to get out of the zoo, how long would it take that gorilla to get to our house?  How many punches would it take for a gorilla to break this glass door?  Is Daddy or a gorilla stronger?"

Pete's first turkey of the year, and John was with him when he got it!  Such a fun morning for these guys.

Sweet Susannah was too picture perfect one evening for me to not snap a quick pic of her!  Susannah also learned to tie her own shoes a couple weeks ago, so these are now her go-to kicks because she's so proud of herself.

This boy is TOO BIG!

Meet Barbara Badjokes.  During this quarantine, I've really missed connecting with my best friends' kids!  So I decided to create a character to send them videos to just be silly with them.  So every few days, they get a video from Barb telling them ridiculous stories and super cheesy jokes.

The sweetest ending to this story that Susannah wrote about what's been going on with us these days.

Susannah has been WAY into her Bible lately.  I'll include here what I wrote in this pic's caption on social media: "The night before Susannah started kindergarten back in the fall, we gave her her own bible. We told her, “you’re going to learn to read this year, and this is the most important book you will ever read.” We didn’t press her to read it at all after that, so she’d take it to church sometimes and to Awana sometimes, but it was most often found in the bookshelf. Yesterday morning, however, Sus opened it up and realized how many words she knew in there now. And she has not put it down - outside of sleeping and eating - since. She reads what she can, asks me to read parts she can’t, and underlines allllll her most favorite lines. I didn’t enjoy reading my bible until I was in my mid-twenties, and Sus is just drinking it up. We are not pushing or demanding this of her; rather, the Lord is stirring something in her at the ripe age of six, and it’s a really beautiful thing to be a part of."

Clark will be 11 months old on Wednesday, and he's still not crawling.  He's just super happy sitting in the same place and hollering until a 6 year old or a 35 year old come fetch him or what he needs.  When we put him on his stomach for practice, he ends up backed against a wall somewhere in distress.  Here's hoping he gets the hang of it soon!

Alright, now for more words on the thoughts in my head and tugs on my heart.  

I started reading Hebrews just before the coronavirus was labeled a pandemic and the world shut down.  I hit chapter 3 right after school was called off, and it hit me right back, right in verse 1: "...you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus..." (emphasis mine).  Those 2 words, consider Jesus, struck something deep in me.  The world was entering into a pandemic where we had no history or new information -- READ: nothing -- to tell us what we could expect.  So many what-ifs, so many anxieties, so many changes, so many THINGS to consider.  The plate was overflowing, and still is.  So this basic instruction to consider Jesus resonated.  There are a million things that could (and often do) draw our focus away from Jesus.  Nothing is more worthy of our consideration than Jesus, and while we should be wise and thoughtful with issues that arise, worries and anxieties become idols so quickly!  So in the presence and unavoidability of the abundant information and misinformation right now, we who share in a heavenly calling must consider Jesus above and before all else.  And as we do that, as we prioritize Christ above all else, we can take the promise from Isaiah 26 to the bank: the Lord will keep us in perfect peace, those whose minds are stayed on Him because we trust in Him (v. 3).  This is easier said than done, but it's worth every effort, not just in what we receive from the practice (that peace) but the glory it brings to our Father in Heaven.  He's the only worthy frontrunner, and anything else that we allow to compete with Him is trash in comparison.  So as we continue on with alllllllll this STUFF we're dealing with in this, oh gosh, election year and pandemic and whatever else because there's always something else, let's first and most often consider Jesus.