Chatty Actions

We've all heard the saying, "Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks." (Quite the tongue twister, and it wasn't all that easy to type.) It's a relatively simple concept, but for some people, it's a difficult one to put into practice. Basically, you can say whatever you want, but until you act on your supposed belief system, no one is going to believe you. "If you say you are a Christian, but don't have the love of God in your life, you're a liar." Sound familiar?

There is nothing more frustrating and discouraging to me than people who claim to be Christians, and even Christian leaders, and yet demonstrate none of what Christ and His true followers clearly defined as Christian character. I think the Bible is pretty clear when Christ says, "by their fruit you will know them," and then later in the New Testament goes on to list what the fruits of the Spirit are -  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness. Let me be very clear - if someone says they are a Christian, but they don't love people, aren't happy, aren't gentle, are impatient and are constantly arguing, the Bible is calling their bluff. By your fruits, you will be known. How are you known?

Groanings and Grace

Sometimes, life is easy. Now, we never think about it like that. We rarely, if ever, stop to think, "wow, my life is really a breeze right now." But let's face it, there are all (often short) periods in our life when nothing terribly awful is going on. When things are just..."normal." We take these times for granted pretty much always. I can't ever remember a point in my life where I prayed to God and thanked Him for my incredibly normal life. No, I normally pray and thank Him when something extraordinary happens, or I pray and beg Him for healing, help, and relief. There's not usually an in between kind of prayer.

Well, after this past month or two, I will most certainly find myself thanking God for the normal times when my life gets back there. Not that life has been completely awful, but to call it stressful would be an understatement. I feel as thought every aspect of my life has some form of stress or pain in it right now, although when I talk to friends and start reading some of my favorites blogs, I know I'm not the only one out there and I'm most certainly not in the worst shape. I have friends going through horrible things right now, and that may be part of my "life pain" right now. I am terribly empathetic - to a fault. I hurt for everyone. I hate watching a  friend go through something difficult, struggle with health failure or be torn apart by something. It just kills me. And right now, there are so many loved ones going through so much pain.

It's times like this when I think of those passages in the New Testament that talk about "Creation groaning, waiting for the return of Christ" or "the Spirit interceding for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." Sometimes, there is just nothing to say. Sometimes, all that comes out is "God, it hurts. Help." Or sometimes, it's not even a hidden pain, it's just that there appears to be no end or resolution to an extremely stressful situation. You have no idea what to even ask God for; you just want the situation to end.

This point is where I'm beyond grateful for our good and loving God. God is not up in Heaven rejoicing when we are in pain. He does not enjoy when His children suffer - I think Job is pretty clear in that, while God allows certain things to happen to us, it is not for His enjoyment, per say. I know there are Christians out there that feel when they suffer, they are making God happy, and I just don't see that in Scripture. Do you enjoy when your kids are in pain? When something at school is making them miserable? When they're stressed out beyond belief? No! No humane parent on the planet enjoys watching their children in pain. But sometimes, we have to allow it for the purpose of growth and learning.

Some lucky children out there learn vicariously through others - they watch older siblings misbehave and be punished and realize, "hmmm, that's not something I want to go through." My husband is one of those people for the most part. He learns vicariously. I, on the other hand, am not at all like that. I have to experience the pain to really understand it, and that has gotten me in lots of trouble throughout the past. But the point is, I learned. I was taught those lessons, and let me tell you - I will never forget them. I grew as a person and became better for those lessons, however horrible the learning process was. This is how our Christian walk operates, and somewhat to an even greater extent. We can never fully understand the love of God until we go through human rejection. We can never fully experience the mercy of God unless we've been forgiven. There are so many characteristics of who God is that become so much more real after you've lived through pain, and that's the whole point of life - to discover who God is and to praise and glorify Him because of it.

So, while part of my is currently longing for a return to "normal" times in my life, the other part of me is whole-heartedly searching for God to show me what part of Him is to be magnified through my life situations. What am I not understanding completely about Him that He wants me to learn? Looking at life like this is the only way to stay sane sometimes.... and moments of sanity are few and far between.

How have horrible or difficult life circumstances taught you more about your God? Is there something about Him that you never would have understood without life being so hard? Please tell me I'm not the only one out there :)

Oops...

It's been almost 2 solid months since I've written, and while I have all the excuses in the world, if you actually keep up with my blog, you clearly see the issue is not with my schedule but rather with me. I'm just not a great daily blogger lol. So we'll skip with the usual formal apologies and get right to it.

Today is the big Gender Reveal for our family of what Baby #2 is going to be. I'm pretty stoked. Everything's sitting out my table ready to go over to my in-laws, the cupcakes are in the oven and.... it's pouring outside. It was supposed to be a 30% chance of rain and it hasn't stopped all morning. I'm just holding out hope that it'll stop sometime before 7pm.

Aria has certainly been growing up these past couple months. Just looking at pictures from a month ago, her face already looks so much older. She's still babbling all the time, but she uses a lot of real words, and is usually very good at communicating exactly what she wants/ needs. She says" pwees" and "tank yoo," and "luh loo" (love you.) She can ask for her blanket, pacifier or even a nap. She finally is understanding the difference between milk, juice and water. She can tell us when she's done eating and tells (and signs) to us when she's hungry. She's really getting the hang of throwing and kicking a ball and has finally started playing with dolls, although she still prefers Elmo to just about anything. She sings all the time, which is probably my favorite. She still holds her odd fascination with shoes and socks, and I usually find various pairs of shoes all over the house - in my dresser drawers, under couch cushions, in my bed and even inside my crock pot. 

So many things change so fast, and it blows my mind how fast these past 22 months with her have gone. Soon there will be two of them growing up at lighting speed. 

Here are some shots of life from the past couple of months.

Taking a picture of herself on Uncle Trev's phone

Easter Sunday

First Easter egg hunt 

Building a block city on top of the toilet

discovering innovative new ways to dress herself  :)

The Redesign Into the Big Girl Room

Since we're (hopefully) getting ready to move, I've been looking at all sorts of ideas for Aria's room. While I love her current room, it's just really not "her." It's sweet and soft and soothing, and if you've been reading here for any amount of time, you understand that Aria's just not "soft and soothing." So I've been looking on Pinterest to get ideas for her new room (another good reason I give when I've spent hours on there!) I would really like to do bright, fun colors, and since she's still quite girly, I'm thinking hot pink with teal and lime green would fit her perfectly. I've recently found a theme that I've fallen in love with. 

Source

I'm hoping that I will be "artistic" enough to pull it off lol. The only thing I would change here is switch out the yellow for the lime green. I haven't decided what I want to do with her furniture yet, since it's currently painted the same pastel colors as her walls. She'll also inhabit my old daybed once the baby comes. (I can't believe she's almost old enough for a "big girl bed!") You can see the original blogpost for this GORGEOUS bedroom by clicking here. This woman's eye for design is fantastic.

When did your kids get their "big kid rooms?" Did they, or their unique little personality help design the room, or did you plan it yourself? How often have your kids changed their bedrooms? I remember my middle brother had the same one all the way through, but the baby brother changed his ALL the time - maybe that has to do with personalities? 

Return from Sabbatical

Ok, so I didn't take an official "sabbatical" or anything like that; it just sounds better than coming back and saying AGAIN "hi. i'm back. oops." So I'm calling my preceding leave of absence a "sabbatical."  I didn't at all intend to stop blogging for a while - in fact, I was planning fun things to do the end of February when our family was smitten down with the flu. In fact, it felt like it lasted about 2 weeks; nothing new or interesting was happening, we were just trying to survive the massive congestion, the fevers and the wracking coughs. And - since we're all aware of the principle of inertia - when you stop blogging for two weeks, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and inspiration to begin again. Well, at least for me in does. Not much of an excuse, but there it is.

So, anyways.... there actually has been quite a line-up of interesting events that occurred here in the Wardell household while I was away. Aria's vocabulary has increased exponentially. She can pretty clearly communicate exactly what she wants now, as long as it's a food item, Elmo or a bath. And since those are the kinds of things that she asks for most frequently, we all have a pretty good grasp on her current "needs." She's also learned to express a desire to go outside to walk, to go to bed, to read a book and to "go!" It's been great actually being able to have mini conversations with her, and I really love this new phase of her communicative, adventurous little personality.

We have also been in the process of buying a home, which is beyond exciting for me. We are simply waiting on final paperwork approval, and we will be closing on our brand new condo. It really is perfect for us and had a perfect price tag. It also has that necessary third bedroom, which brings me to the last big thing that's been going on in our lives which is....

That Aria is going to be a big sister! :) We're all very excited about this addition to our little family, coming in October. Pretty much all of the male relatives (which really is the majority in our families) are hoping for a little boy addition, but I think we'll all be happy no matter what :)
Next month, I would like to do a polling contest of my readers both here on the blog and on Facebook for what you think we'll be having. I haven't decided a prize yet, but I'm sure it'll be wonderful :) I'll also be hosting a contest to see who can come up with the best solution to the blog name once the baby is born, since Aria will have to start sharing the attention, but that will be later in the year.

If any of you out there are still reading, I thank you. I know I'm probably the most inconsistent blogger on the planet, but hopefully things will start picking up around here again. After all, it is almost time to start potty training.... 

Aria's Facebook announcement about the coming baby :)