Five-Minute Friday: Jump

April 18, 2013 by · 46 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Jump

I watch her jump Every. Single. Day.

It’s one of her favorite things.

Whether she’s jumping from a chair, jumping on the bed (which she’s technically forbidden to do but still does…) or simply jumping to the next place she’s planning to go, the girl lives to jump.

And there are times I have to ask her, in all of her two year-old non-understanding, to stop, simply for my sanity.

But the truth is, I think it’s adorable…the way she finds so much pleasure in the simple. The way jumping down each back step brings a smile to her face…and, well, it makes me smile, too. Really big.

I get so caught up in the busy of life…things that occupy way too much time, and I forget that sometimes, joy can be found in the simplest of things.

A few days ago we were taking a little walk down the sidewalk in our neighborhood.

She looked at me. Mommy, jump?

I obliged.

We jumped down the sidewalk.

And it was the best part of my day.

You know, I might just spend tomorrow holding her hand…and we’ll jump through our day together.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: adventures, being mommy, Five Minute Friday, just life, Maelie, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Here

April 11, 2013 by · 45 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Here

I’m sitting here on the couch. Deep, I know. 😉

It’s that moment of the day that I’ve been looking forward to…a time when I can just hash it all out without (well, almost always without) using the delete key or proofreading or questioning.

Just a time to process five minutes of here and what’s going on in life now.

Honestly, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the past few months and the ways that time has felt so up and down, so full of circle-spinning.

So many questions…and, just, wondering.

And the thing He continues to remind me of is the present…of the fact that the blessings, the joys, the sorrows, the ups and downs, the millions of things that make up the past…they all add up to this. The here.

And, I love it.

Despite the fact that in the last month I’ve wept over past loss.

Or the fact that I struggled through days of parenting and prayed with everything in me that I wasn’t screwing it all up.

Or even that, in the pursuit of a dream, there are days when it feels so close, and other days when I feel like I’ve been body slammed fifty miles backwards.

And He reminds me…Here.

Now.

Live.

Just as it is, just as it comes.

Take what you’ve learned…and live it, along with the blessings all around.

That is here.

And I am blessed.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: being mommy, blessings, encouragement, Five Minute Friday, just life, where I am, writing

Five-Minute Friday: Broken

March 28, 2013 by · 40 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Broken

It’s been a broken week.

The kind that started with Sunday tears and wondering and wishing that life made sense in a week that is supposed to be beautiful and the perfect reflection of the sacrifice my Jesus made for me.

And then I think about how broken He became for me. His body was literally broken.

He was broken to fix me, fix this heart, give me hope and peace in a world that offers no such things.

And, yet, I will still catch myself looking at the world, trying to use it to fix whatever seems to be wrong at the moment.

My greatest need is Him…and though there are days and even weeks or longer that seem to be a mess of broken, I must always remember that because I have him…

I am redeemed.

Made new.

Forgiven.

Healed.

Hopeful.

I am anything but broken.

And as I reflect on a day full of unimaginable pain and sacrifice, I am so very thankful that he was wounded and broken, he died and rose again…

So that I might live.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: barefoot, blessings, encouragement, Five Minute Friday, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Remember

March 21, 2013 by · 46 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Remember

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Remember.

It’s a day I hold in my heart forever.

That early-Monday-afternoon in mid-June, 2010.

They placed her…all tiny, swaddled-up, seven-pounds, twelve-ounces of her into my new mama arms, and I vowed I would never forget that moment.

I stroked her dark hair and remember thinking that with all the heartburn I’d had during my pregnancy that it didn’t surprise me to see she wasn’t bald. :)

And I just looked at her. For what seemed like hours. Memorized her face. Promised to never, ever forget a single detail.

And now we walk the days together…my tiny girl grew and is growing, changed and is changing, crawled then walked and now runs everywhere, it seems.

She is beautiful…more every day.

She is everything and so much more than I ever dreamed in a daughter.

And I want to freeze time in our days, but of course, time doesn’t freeze. It defies my hopes and marches on, seemingly picking up the pace with each passing day.

Still, we mark moments. Photograph them. Write them down. Try so hard to remember everything. Knowing that one day all too soon, my little girl with messy pigtails and a song in her heart will be out making her own memories, marking up the world, singing even more loudly, loving like she does.

And we’ll be so glad we took the time to remember these moments.

My Maelie-girl…I am so proud to be your mommy.

HotChocolate06

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: being mommy, blessings, Five Minute Friday, Maelie, remembering, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Rest

March 15, 2013 by · 8 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Rest

For about a year, early in our marriage, I worked at a coffee shop that was close to our house.

I loved it…really, that kind of job is geared toward someone like me. Chatting, coffee, people…yep, it was fun.

Even the early mornings were enjoyable enough, though they required me to get up at 4:30 a.m. :)

When Friday night would hit, though, all of those pre-sunrise mornings would catch up with me, and my body would literally crash.

And early.

It wasn’t uncommon for me to be completely out before 8 pm.

One of the stories my hubby loves to tell from that year was from a certain week. Nothing in particular stands out from that week, but for whatever reason, my body was so tired, I fell asleep around 7 pm on Friday night.

And while that’s not earth-shattering, the time I got up the next day is.

One. in. the. afternoon.

He jokes about how much he got done while I was, literally, sleeping the day away…not only did he go grocery shopping (bless him to the moon and back for that one!), but he went to Menards, bought an invisible fence for our dog, and installed the entire thing before I was out of bed.

:)

I’m not going to make excuses for myself.

Clearly my body needed that rest, and when it finally got it…in the form of 18 hours?

I couldn’t believe the difference.

I felt so much more awake…alive…able to actually function.

And it’s the same way with resting in our Father.

Sometimes we go and go and go…trying to do everything in our own strength, forgetting that we have the strength of someone else.

We don’t have to do it on our own.

And when we finally slow down for that rest…for that encouragement…for His presence…it’s only then that we can continue on and feel alive again.

I am so guilty of pushing forward on my own, trying to get through my days in my own, human strength.

God, I need you. So much.

Help me to find my rest, always, in You.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: coffee, encouragement, Five Minute Friday, remembering, Tobin, what I'm learning, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Home

March 8, 2013 by · 8 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Home

Home.

The word has taken on such a different meaning for me in the past, almost-three, years.

I used to think it was a place…this two-story, blue beauty on the corner of Wisconsin and Charles, nestled into what I think is possibly the best neighborhood in the world.

Surrounded by neighbors who have become friends and friends who have become family, this place is our home.

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I smile every time I remember the moment…the time we walked through the door for the first time. We just looked at each other, and we knew. This was it.

Home.

And we have been blessed to plant our roots deep and give our daughter a place to call home…and give ourselves that place, too.

But as I look at our lives…though young, we’ve seen a lot. We’ve experienced the temporary of home and the unknown of the journey…and though it’s always nice to have a place, it isn’t a building that makes a home.

It’s people and love…those that surround us each day and love us despite the ugly and imperfect, those who choose to be part of our lives and hearts.

They are what makes a home.

Oh, I love my blue house, number 127.

But my home is just that because of the love I’ve been blessed with.

Almost by accident last fall, I stumbled onto a quote, one now painted (well, it was a rub-on if we’re being technical ;)) on our living room wall.

Life takes you to unexpected places; Love brings you home.

Always. And we are home. It’s good.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: blessings, family, Five Minute Friday, friends, just life, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Ordinary

March 1, 2013 by · 15 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Ordinary

When I was younger, I wished for blond hair and blue eyes.

And other than those few months of scorching, Iowa summer each year, when the combination of sun and chlorine would turn my locks a sandy-gold color, this brunette always kept wishing.

Well, there was that time in college when I bleached my hair so white I ruined it and had to cut it all off… 😉

But, back to the life of a brunette. One with brown eyes, too.

I spent so much of my childhood feeling like that plain, ordinary girl…the one who blended in with everyone else. The one who never stood out. (Well, for a good reason, at least.)

Much of life is the same, probably for most of us.

We stare at what we see reflected in the mirror and wish for something more…something to make us stand out, something to make us special, something to tell the world, I’m worth seeing.

Anything at all to release us from the stickiness that the label of ordinary brands those of us who let it define a piece of who we are.

And then He reminds me, as He always does…just when I’m getting to that point of discontentment and wishing.

You are Mine.

I love you, just as you are.

Enough that I bought you for a price.

None of those scream ordinary at all.

In fact, I‘m pretty sure they’re extraordinary.

I dye my hair every four weeks now. (Special thanks to my daddy-o for the awesome genes in making me gray in my mid-30’s. :))

My color of choice?

Deep, dark brown. :)

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: blessings, encouragement, Five Minute Friday, hair, just life, remembering, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: What Mama Did

February 22, 2013 by · 14 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: What Mama Did

It’s a day I have waited for…and dreaded at the same time.

That day when I cross the line, officially, from child to adult. No, not my eighteenth birthday, but I rang that in a few weeks ago.

I’m leaving for college.

It’s time to go…time to get out of here, or more like high speed it out of here on I-35 in my awesome ’85 Olds.

And I know I don’t do goodbye well…or see ya later…or even hello, but what the future holds for me is bright. I just know it.

And I leave behind the place that started me…and the people who were the pieces of that beginning, too.

She was one of my biggest influences, my mom…and life turned out much differently than any of us had ever planned. Circumstances were unfair, the consequences of decisions affected us to the core, and when I packed my bags on that sweltering August day, we knew that I was leaving as a much different person than I had been before they ended.

Her and my daddy.

And my last two years there, it was just me and her. She was strong and did what she had to do, but the situation changed us all forever.

And now I’m me…not the same as I was, but still pieces of it.

Sometimes stumbling, faltering…and I learn again to rest in His grace and remember that there is always a brand new day coming where His new mercies abound.

Almost seventeen years later, I think about the new journey that day began.

I kiss my husband.

I love on my daughter.

I thank God for the many, many blessings He has so graciously given.

Included in those blessings, are those pieces from my beginning. My daddy. My mama.

And now, I continue on in her shoes.

And I hope that, one day, when my daughter is asked to reflect, she will write of me with thankfulness and love for all we shared.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: being mommy, blessings, family, Five Minute Friday, Maelie, marriage, remembering, Tobin, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Beloved

February 15, 2013 by · 12 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Beloved

Hello, urge to run away from the computer.

Gotta be honest that when I saw the topic for today, I almost didn’t write. (Like a hundred times almost.)

The word beloved is that kind of word…that kind of Truth that makes me feel so incredible, inexplicably blessed…and at the same time so overwhelmed and unworthy.

He calls me His beloved.

In that statement, my Father reiterates, again, His unconditional, unfailing, total love for me…Mel, this girl who can throw out a hundred flaws about herself.

It overwhelms me…how do I possibly return this kind of perfect love? The answer is simple.

I’m not capable of it.

But through Him, and only through Him, I can walk in obedience, praise Him with every breath, allow myself to be lavished in His grace and showered in His love…and try to show that love back to Him and pass it on to others.

It’s really about Grace…about that full acceptance of something so amazing, so wonderful, so completely perfect that we will never fully understand it.

But we don’t need to…we’re His beloved. And when we accept that, it’s all we’ll ever need.

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: blessings, encouragement, Five Minute Friday, where I am

Five-Minute Friday: Bare

February 8, 2013 by · 8 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.

Join me!

The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.

Today’s Topic: Bare

It’s an early and cold winter morning, and the first thing I do is wiggle my bare feet into my slippers.

Being a tropical-at-heart girl, I’m not so much into being cold, and those slippers, strangely, make my entire body feel about a hundred degrees warmer. Even though they’re only covering my feet.

I remember the blizzard we got two years ago, and how I couldn’t wait to jump around in the almost-two-feet of snow that fell. At one point, I got this crazy idea to take my boots and socks off and run around barefoot in the snow.

It was cold…like, I’m not sure I’ve ever been that cold. And, honestly, I had a hard time warming up for the rest of the day.

When we walk around with bare feet, our senses are heightened. We notice those things we may have missed with shoes or slippers or even a pair of socks.

That lovely, little dribble-puddle of apple juice my daughter has left on the floor.

The sticky peanut butter that somehow escaped from her sandwich and made it’s way to the bottom of my foot.

That tiny little rock on the sidewalk that, had I even been wearing flip flops, I never would have noticed.

And sometimes? What we’ve experienced while we’re barefoot affects us longer than foot-stickiness or a moment of pain.

I named my blog what it is for a reason.

While slippers are awesome…especially in the frigid-to-me, Chicago-burb winters…I never want to get too comfortable with those foot-coverings.

God tells us in Scripture that we should rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Basically, I feel like He’s telling me I should feel…as much as possible.

Go barefoot. :)

Even if my feet end up freezing while I’m doing it. 😉

Five Minute Friday

Sig

Filed Under: adventures, barefoot, Five Minute Friday, just life, remembering, where I am
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