Beauty in the Mess ~ Edition 02.28.13

It’s the last day of February, and I just got back from a week-long vacation. It’s definitely time to start counting my blessings.

February brought us to the end of my husband’s military career. What a huge relief!! We are both finding ourselves happier and more relaxed. Now that Russ is on terminal leave, we are getting a lot of extra time as a family…time to rest and just enjoy being a family.

But the future is still very uncertain. We have 2 months and 6 days until we are officially unemployed, and that puts a lot of pressure on my husband to find work swiftly. Russ and I are both spending hours on the computer each week pouring over job postings looking for things he can apply to. It’s been a very discouraging process, as each day brings new rejection emails…or simple silence. (I’m not sure which is worse…Does the “no news is good news” rule apply to job hunting?)

But there has been so much beauty in the last three weeks. 

Beauty in…

Watching TV with little boy feet

Ezra being (somewhat of a) good boy during a cardiologist appointment, a genius nurse who used animal crackers and Sesame Street to keep him still during his ECHO, and finding out that Ezra’s congenital heart defect has completely closed up and he no longer needs to see a cardiologist in the future!

Valentines Day…when my husband drove over to the chapel to PWOC to deliver this to me in person, in front of all my Bible study sisters. Even though it was inedible due to my food allergies, he wanted me to have it “because it was pretty.” I got to stare at it for the rest of Bible Study!

My other Valentine…

Finding this mess after an extended “nap time.” Instead crying to get out, Ezra has been playing quietly (or not so quietly) for extended periods of time on his own, both in the afternoons for naps, and first thing in the morning. Which is giving me extra time to rest and get housework done!

Little Boy…so thrilled to have gotten to go on a trip to “da REAL cave”

…getting a private tour, just our family and the tour guide.

Taking the scenic route home while Ezra slept.

Meeting up (in)RL…”in real life”…with some other Kentucky bloggers, who set up an extra time to meet with me since I wasn’t positive that I would still be living in Kentucky at the time of the (in)RL conference. Having a nice dinner and encouraging conversation with Katie Orr from Hello Mornings and Cyndi Spivey from Walking in Grace and Beauty.

While eating this brownie sundae:

(minus the brownie)

Being encouraged by Katie and Cyndi’s to re-incorporate Bible reading back into my schedule.

Making “read before opening” happen five mornings in a row.

(I fell off the wagon over vacation, but hope to get back on tomorrow!)

 A picnic with Ezra on a nice warm day:

(he was very excited about chicken and fries)

Stepping on the scale to see 125.4 lbs…a new low number–

A number that’s on the very high end of my pre-pregnancy weight range!!!

And wearing one of my favorite shirts for the first time in over 3 years:

(I wanted my husband to take this picture…but I got impatient.) 

Then my husband took this one:

A wonderful family outing to the big exciting world of Barnes and Noble.

Hitting a children’s DVD sale and getting EIGHT Little Einsteins DVDs for $38.

Ending off the night reading to Ezra in the story time area.

Then hearing him say, totally unprompted, while playing with this globe:

“God made da erf!!!” 

#mustbedoingsomethingright

My birthday breakfast…

Eaten in peace (baby-free) and shared with sweet friends and sisters:

Vacation.

Which I was secretly dreading because Ezra never sleeps well away from home.

But I was pleasantly surprised.

We used this setup:

And he slept like a baby (the kind of babies that sleep), every night.

No night waking!! 

And sleeping in until 6:30-7:00 every morning.

Time with family, a birthday party, free socks, lots of naps, tv watching…

Copious amounts of sugar.

Like this hot chocolate:

And this ice cream:

ice cream…as it should be:

Warm fires each evening, shared with exuberant little boys.

Who barely stayed still long enough to take this picture:

And then a long 9 1/2 hour trip home, with two hour-long stops.

Finding the 8th wonder of the world

(if you were to ask my husband):

A Cookout restaurant with an eat-in dining room! 

And getting a Cookout tshirt for $1.99.

(And this man…looking daggone sexy in red and longer hair!!)

And stopping at our favorite half-way point stop:

Bass Pro Outdoor World

Fishies, boats, waterfalls, and lots of stairs…what more could a little boy want?

(We’ve been stopping here several times a year since Ezra was 2 months old.)

My sweet boy saying:

“Hello big fishie! How you today?!?!” 

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson