I wish I had something creative and witty to say, but I don't. :) I am enjoying a beautiful sunshiney day (we have had a few days of rain without the sun peaking its head out) It is a calm, restful Sunday, Aaron is already back at the church getting things ready for tonight's service and Isaac is taking his LONGer than normal Sunday afternoon nap (He always makes up for all the excitement and attention at church by basically sleeping all afternoon) So I thought while I had a few minutes of quiet I would post some pics and let you all know what we have been up to :)

A few weeks ago Aaron and our youth director, Ryan had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few days with the pastoral staff at Elizabeth City EMC. Aaron shadowed Pastor Max and met with the rest of the staff while Ryan shadowed the Youth Pastor, Nate Williamson. And since it was family, Isaac and I got to tag along! It was wonderful to see Nate, Leah, and Emma and get to spend some time with them. Isaac and Emma hit it off and were so fun to watch together. Leah and I got a small dose of what it might be like to have twins! We had a wonderful visit with family, a fresh look at ministry, and lots of encouragement. We had a little bit of sickness mingled through with me getting sick our last day there, and as we traveled home late Wednesday evening, Isaac had his first experience with the stomach bug. :( That is one thing I could have waited a long time to experience as a mother, your child very sick and not being able to do a thing about it. With me being sick that morning, Aaron was wonderful and did all the dirty work with clean-up and helping Isaac out since I still had a weak stomach. After about three stops along the way, we made it safely home, and Isaac slept peacefully through the night (mom didn't sleep so peacefully, keeping one ear open in case he got sick again) But he was fine the next morning and ate a good breakfast. Thankfully he recovered much quicker than mommy!

Below is a video of Isaac and his cousin Emma.

Isaac will figure out one way or another to get things done. With this particular toy he figured out that he could use his mouth to push the button down and it will make the balls spin around. It is one of the funniest things to watch. I have since shown him that he can use his hand to press the button down, but I think he still prefers to use his mouth!!

Here is another of his favorite toys. It has gears that are connected to one another and when you press the button they all move and it plays a little song. Well, at this point he just likes to pull the gears off and throw them behind him as fast as mom can put them back on :)

He got ahold of the swiffer one morning while I was cleaning and decided to do a little cleaning himself. Every time I have it out he always wants to get ahold of it. I just hope he still wants to use it when he gets older!

Here he is with Papaw and Mamie. They came in for a week during his birthday and got him the spiffy little suit he has on.

He looks so cute and cuddly in this pic with his little snow suit on :)

Isaac's favorite place to head is the kitchen where there is lots of stuff for him to get into! I have a low shelf in a bottom cabinet where I keep some of my cookbooks. This particular day Isaac somehow managed to get my heavy Taste of Home cookbook off of that shelf and it rested on the side of his walker. He was walking around the house with it open on his walker and just smiling great big like he had really accomplished something!

Sometimes he plays in his crib before he actually takes a nap. This particular day he had walked out of his pants and also pulled the mobile apart before he fell asleep. (The mobile is no longer over his bed since he continually played with it and broke it)

My Grace Is Sufficient For Thee

The Lord seems to be wanting to teach me to fully trust in Him. In many of the devotions and Scripture I have read in the past few weeks that has been a recurring theme. In these times of economic instability for our nation as a whole, you wonder how it will all turn out. You see the prices in the grocery store continue to rise, gas prices unstable, etc without seeing much relief. In the midst of this, God is teaching me that He is my provider and that He knows what I need! In these times of instability we can rest fully in the arms of One who does not change and never will! He is the only One that can be fully trusted and relied on and He has our best interest at heart. I was particuarly touched by a devotional I read from Streams in the Desert, compiled by Lettie Cowman and I just wanted to share it with you.

The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day's work. I felt very wearied, and sore depressed, when swiftly, and suddenly as a lightning flash, that text came to me, "My grace is sufficient for thee." ...It seemed to make unbelief so absurd. It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said, "Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee." or, it seemed after the seven years of plenty, a mouse feared it might die of famine; and Joseph might say, "Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee." Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain saying to himself, " I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere," but the earth might say, "Breathe away, O man, and fill the lungs ever, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee." Oh, brethren, be great believers! C.H. Spurgeon