Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful worldas it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A touch of spring...then snow today???

Mason learned how to drink from the birdbath this weekend!

He also loves to roll in our unbelievable thick, dead grass...

And bring this stuff into the house...


And Justin tries to fix the problem...my boys are too cute!

It's so funny how the weather is this time of year. 2 weekends ago, while we were in Asheville, Auburn got 4 inches of snow. This past weekend, we had beautiful, sunny 65 degree days and it was lovely. Then, this morning, on my way to work and up until about 9 am, we had flurries! I wish the weather would make up it's mind and choose SPRING!
This past weekend however, because we did get a GLIMPSE of spring time weather, we stayed in the yard all day, doing yard work and reading under the magnolia tree!








Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Day in Asheville...

The View from the House
From the Lawn

The Biltmore House


After dinner at Moose Cafe



Well, first of all, we missed the "blizzard" in Auburn as we retreated for a couple's weekend in beautiful Asheville, NC. Justin's grandparents (both sets) gave us money for Christmas and since we didn't "need" anything this year like I'm sure we will in the future once little ones come along, we decided to take a weekend vacation of somewhere romantic, yet affordable, so, Asheville, NC it was.

We left on Friday morning, thanks to ACS and AU for giving us Friday off for a snow day. We were able to have a whole other day on vaca! We got to Asheville in mid-afternoon and it had begun to snow. We walked around down town and window shopped and enjoyed snuggling with each other in book stores and an art gallery. By 5:30, the snow was really coming down, so we decided to park the car at the hotel and walk to the Fiddlin' Pig to have dinner. After getting stuffed, we walked back to the hotel to watch the Winter Olympics and read, snuggled in our King size bed, which is a treat since at home we still have just a full!

After sleeping in on Saturday morning, we went back to downtown and had breakfast. We chose this really modern, snazzy organic coffee shop where we enjoyed blackberry lemon muffins and I had the most heavenly vanilla chai latte ever. I am sure I will sip one of those every day in heaven! We then went to the Mass General Store, where we bought each others Valentine's Day presents. Justin got a new pair of Columbia pants and shorts, which he will use this summer during his research trip and Justin splurged, big time, to buy my these adorable, yet super sexy Clark wedges for the summer! I am now officially ready for spring!

We continued on our window shopping and enjoyed several used book stores, where I had to add we bought 7 new books for less than $20! Again, beach/pool side reading is in store...summer here yet?

We had the blessing of meeting the Dellingers for dinner at the Moose Cafe, which was phenominal. I had read about it in Southern Living and we enjoyed every bite of it! Everything is made from scratch...delicious!

Sunday morning Justin and I woke up and after sipping coffee, Justin asked if I would like to do a quiet time. We read James 5 and had our own little "Sunday School" lesson which was a wonderful way to start off the day. We then made our way to the Biltmore Estate! Justin has been there several times, but it was a first for me. I have to mention that I just read the book "Rebecca" and if you haven't read it, you should. It's considered a classic and was perfect timing for me to go to Biltmore. The time periods are very similar the in the book, the narrator's house, Manderley, is much like the Biltmore House! It is exquisite, to say the least, and we had a wonderful time learning about the history and art restoration that takes place in the house.

We got back on the road around 3:30 pm to come home to our sweet boy howling in his pin. We had such a wonderful time together this weekend. Lots of snuggles, good conversation, and simply a weekend away...

Friday, February 5, 2010

It's a process...

At the end of every night I lie in bed and ask that God forgive me of the ways I've hurt Him and His children. Then, every morning I wake up to a brand new day, with a clean slate. It doesn't take very long for me to chalk one on my board of mistakes though. I may say something snide toward Justin before he even gets out of bed, I may get annoyed with Mason while he's trying to eat my breakfast, and I may say an unneccesary word when I kick Mason's bone across the room, all before 5:45 am.

Why are we here? To know God and make Him known. To live out the great commission, to spread the Word, and to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind and love my neighbor as myself. Every day is an opportunity to do just that; to bring glory to His name. In every moment of laughter, in every circumstance where I'm torn, or hurt, or misunderstood, in every tear that I've shed, it's a time when He alone deserves all recognition, for He is worthy.

I am learning, it's a process...