Summer Stretch

Today, is my first official day of summer vacation with my baby girl! She gave me a special gift this morning and let me sleep in! We are at my parents in Bartlesville for the week, and already we've both fallen in love with being on vacation. My mom has been spoiling the both of us. Well, really spoiling Lydia, but I get to reap the benefits of a happy baby. :) The last few weeks of school were busy, busy, busy! And today, we have been very lazy, lazy, lazy! I know the summer is going to go by so fast, so I am just soakin' up every moment. I want to enjoy this summer to it's fullest! Spending time with loved ones, playing outside, going for walks, going SWIMMING! We will be taking a few mini-vacations to see friends and family. It is going to be good. The best part.... no stress!!! I just went out to check the pool water, it is a little chilly still so we will wait another day for Lydia's first swim at Bop and Grandma Lou's pool! After she wakes up from her nap we can go for a walk, or to the park, take a trip to the mall, play with toys, dress up for some photos outside with the blooming flowers...really, we get to do whatever we want! Earlier today we were listening to the birds and the windchimes while swinging on the front porch... it was so relaxing, just as summer should be.

So to sum it up... I am super pumped about Summer... taking in the joys of Life and loving those around me. Praising God for all He has done in my life and asking him real nicely, "Please Lord, stretch this summer as long as possible."

"Mom Brain"

Mom brain- the condition in which women who are pregnant or just gave birth can not remember anything. I suffer from “mom-brain”, I’ll admit it. If I don’t write myself a note, set a reminder on my phone, call a friend to ask them to remind me, record it in my school calendar and personal planner, then chances are I will forget!!! My mind is just on other things right now. (changing diapers, folding laundry, feeding, cleaning, sleeping) Just this week I went to a recess duty I wasn’t assigned to.. I was thinking to myself, “What is that teacher doing out here during my duty?” and then she came up and asked me the same thing… and well I was out there when I could’ve been enjoying 15 minutes away from my class. Then, a few days later… I send the kids out to recess and I start to enjoy my 15 minutes of freedom, when the office pages me and asks if I was going to do my recess duty today… I blamed it on mom brain. Good thing I have such a wonderful group of co-workers who have experienced mom brain and show me grace when I’m being overtaken by it. I guess you could say I’m in a sea of forgetfulness.

There have been times where I will be so wrapped up in taking care of my daughter or catching up on sleep that I do forget other areas of my life. I’m just too busy to remember some things and if it’s not important enough for me to make a reminder note then I will just forget about it completely. I started thinking though.. maybe…just maybe, my condition of “mom brain” isn’t such a bad thing right now… maybe it is a blessing!!!! Let me explain.

Sometimes in life we forget the important stuff but remember the stupid, trivial stuff, that doesn’t matter. We remember how bad someone has hurt us, or done something wrong to us. We remember the hurt and the pain of people’s actions. We remember the harsh words spoken, the untruth that was told and we let it get to us. Or we remember the mistakes we’ve made, the poor choices we made, we let the sins from our past creep into our mind to discourage us. I know I’ve I taken time and let it get me down or discourage me. I ‘ve found myself dwelling on it. Just recently I caught myself thinking of the past and who had mistreated me. The pain started to return and I thought, “Whoa, where is this coming from?” It had been quite a while since I remembered it. I thought I’d moved on from it and forgot about it, but it somehow returned. I let myself remember! What if I let my mom brain take over that part of my thinking as well. How freeing that would be… I mean, what good comes from remember how someone else has hurt me? I can’t think of how that is beneficial to me. I can’t change what happened. I can’t go back or redo things.
What if I forgot that someone offended me, and then when I ran into them at Wal*mart I smiled and showed them grace. How cool would that be?? What if I forgot that someone hurt me? Wouldn’t I feel better? Wouldn’t my heart ache a little less? I think so.

And ya know, the coolest part about forgetfulness … Christ has forgotten my sin! Ps. 103:12 says, "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” It’s no longer there once we’ve confessed and turned away from it! I don’t know about you, but for me that is reassuring that I don’t need to remember, if HE doesn’t remember. So my new philosophy, if isn’t worth writing a reminder note about… just forget about it completely.


Things to remember:
God loves me!
God has saved me!
God forgives me!
God has a plan for me!
Morning recess duty!