Chloe and baby Ellie, my friend Erin's one month old little girl. We went to their house to visit them a few weeks ago. The girls love babies. :)
One day we had fun painting outside... we got a wooden cross and birdhouse from my Grandma's house when we had a clean-up day down there, as well as tons of little paints & paint brushes, so one fine morning on one of my day's off, we set up their kiddie table in the front yard and the girls put on their orange Home Depot aprons and went to work. It was much fun. :)
When we were sorting through things for a garage sale & we found this little kit with brushes and nail clippers & such, and my neighbor Joanna had the idea for the girls to use them to pretend to put make-up on - so here's a picture of Chloe and Maya pretending. It was cute.
A random picture from when we flew kites on our vacation in Mackinaw. Here is Daddy flying the new kite we bought and Maya watching...
This was taken on the 4th of July at my Aunt Sandy's house - she has raspberry bushes and Chloe pretty much ate all the edible berries off 2 different bushes! She loves that part when we go to Aunt Sandy's each year. :)
And one more picture of Chloe holding baby Ellie... So cute!
Chloe and Maya sitting on a rock while on Mackinaw Island and feeling the love for a short while. :)
Maya playing on the slide & the clubhouse, while taking a break from swimming in our kiddie pool. She even posed cute for the picture... nice, eh? :)
Shopping on Mackinaw Island... near one of the cool toy stores, there's a fun turtle to sit on.Hope you've enjoyed these random photos! Sorry I don't update nearly as much anymore. I figure it's probably a good thing, though, since that means I'm busy enjoying life and time with my family & kids more.
Our birthday's were wonderful - Chloe got plenty of toys - including a remote control Barbie corvette which Daddy picked out for her & a fun Disney Princess tent both girls like to play in - (though indoors it takes up half the living room!)
I managed to sign up for a hundred restaurant's e-mail clubs (okay, 100 is exaggerating a bit) and therefore I got lotsa' coupons for my birthday. So far I've enjoyed free ice cream at Cold Stone & Baskin Robbins, free chocolate chip cookies at Max & Erma's, and the best deal yet.... My Mom and I went to Lone Star Steak House for lunch on Tuesday and I had a coupon for a "free entree up to $15" and we both ordered steak & potatoes and then then give you free desserts for your birthday - we chose huge brownie sundaes - and then they took $15 off our check, so our whole bill was only $1.05!!! What a huge blessing. :) Too bad we were SOOO stuffed afterward, though... I don't think either of us ate much for dinner that night!
Anyway, I just feel incredibly blessed lately. I've read more of my "Love and Respect" book and have learned more fabulous things about my husband & my marriage. And when I put these things into practice, I am more amazed at how the truths in this book are really true! haha. The more I respect my husband, the more he loves me and we end the vicious cycle of my acting in an unrespectful way and him not showing me love like I want him to! I believe once one person changes his/her attitude or behavior, likely the other person in the relationship will do the same. Praise God! But you have to be careful, because it's easy to get back on the vicious cycle of no love & no respect. Marriage is a constant battle - okay, that doesn't sound good - I mean it's a choice, every day, to choose to love & respect your mate and to not give in to unholy & un-Christlike behaviors & thoughts. We battle Satan everyday - because the last thing he wants is for Christians to have good marriages - and he will try everything in his power to make your marriage crumble. So we must be trying with all our might - EACH and every day - to make our marriage strong and make it last.
This brings me to an awesome article I just read, which my Mom shared with me from the "Focus on the Family" magazine. It's something every couple should read, so I think I'll re-type the article so you can read it right now, and I will end my blog update with this. PLEASE take a few minutes to read it, it is sooo important!
----------------------------------------
The natural tendency of everything in the universe is to move from order to disorder. If you buy a new car, it will steadily deteriorate from the day you drive it home. Your body is slowly aging and dying. Your house has to be repainted and repaired every few summers. A business that is not managed carefully will unravel and collapse. A brick that is placed on a vacant lot and left there long enough will eventually turn to dust. Indeed, even the sun and all the stars are slowly burning themselves out. We are, in a matter of speaking, in a dying universe where everything that is not specifically being protected & upgraded is in a downward spiral.
The principle that governs this shift from order to disorder might be called "the law of disintegration." (Engineers & scientists sometimes call it "the law of entropy.") The only way to postpone or temporarily combat its influence is to invest creative energy and intelligent design into that which is to be preserved.
Not so surprisingly, human relationships also conform to the principle of disintegration. The natural tendency is for husbands and wives to drift away from each other unless they work at staying together. To provide another analogy, it is as though they were sitting in separate rowboats on a choppy lake. If they don't paddle vigorously to stay in the same neighborhood, one will drift to the north of the lake and the other to the south. That is EXACTLY what happens when marital partners get too busy or distracted to maintain their love. If they don't take the time for romantic activities and experiences that draw them together, something precious begins to slip away. It doesn't have to be that way, of course, but the currents of life will separate them unless efforts are made to remain together.
I wish every newly married couple knew about the law of disintegration and actively protected their relationship from it.
-- Taken from the Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Dr. James Dobson.
Our birthday's were wonderful - Chloe got plenty of toys - including a remote control Barbie corvette which Daddy picked out for her & a fun Disney Princess tent both girls like to play in - (though indoors it takes up half the living room!)
I managed to sign up for a hundred restaurant's e-mail clubs (okay, 100 is exaggerating a bit) and therefore I got lotsa' coupons for my birthday. So far I've enjoyed free ice cream at Cold Stone & Baskin Robbins, free chocolate chip cookies at Max & Erma's, and the best deal yet.... My Mom and I went to Lone Star Steak House for lunch on Tuesday and I had a coupon for a "free entree up to $15" and we both ordered steak & potatoes and then then give you free desserts for your birthday - we chose huge brownie sundaes - and then they took $15 off our check, so our whole bill was only $1.05!!! What a huge blessing. :) Too bad we were SOOO stuffed afterward, though... I don't think either of us ate much for dinner that night!
Anyway, I just feel incredibly blessed lately. I've read more of my "Love and Respect" book and have learned more fabulous things about my husband & my marriage. And when I put these things into practice, I am more amazed at how the truths in this book are really true! haha. The more I respect my husband, the more he loves me and we end the vicious cycle of my acting in an unrespectful way and him not showing me love like I want him to! I believe once one person changes his/her attitude or behavior, likely the other person in the relationship will do the same. Praise God! But you have to be careful, because it's easy to get back on the vicious cycle of no love & no respect. Marriage is a constant battle - okay, that doesn't sound good - I mean it's a choice, every day, to choose to love & respect your mate and to not give in to unholy & un-Christlike behaviors & thoughts. We battle Satan everyday - because the last thing he wants is for Christians to have good marriages - and he will try everything in his power to make your marriage crumble. So we must be trying with all our might - EACH and every day - to make our marriage strong and make it last.
This brings me to an awesome article I just read, which my Mom shared with me from the "Focus on the Family" magazine. It's something every couple should read, so I think I'll re-type the article so you can read it right now, and I will end my blog update with this. PLEASE take a few minutes to read it, it is sooo important!
----------------------------------------
The natural tendency of everything in the universe is to move from order to disorder. If you buy a new car, it will steadily deteriorate from the day you drive it home. Your body is slowly aging and dying. Your house has to be repainted and repaired every few summers. A business that is not managed carefully will unravel and collapse. A brick that is placed on a vacant lot and left there long enough will eventually turn to dust. Indeed, even the sun and all the stars are slowly burning themselves out. We are, in a matter of speaking, in a dying universe where everything that is not specifically being protected & upgraded is in a downward spiral.
The principle that governs this shift from order to disorder might be called "the law of disintegration." (Engineers & scientists sometimes call it "the law of entropy.") The only way to postpone or temporarily combat its influence is to invest creative energy and intelligent design into that which is to be preserved.
Not so surprisingly, human relationships also conform to the principle of disintegration. The natural tendency is for husbands and wives to drift away from each other unless they work at staying together. To provide another analogy, it is as though they were sitting in separate rowboats on a choppy lake. If they don't paddle vigorously to stay in the same neighborhood, one will drift to the north of the lake and the other to the south. That is EXACTLY what happens when marital partners get too busy or distracted to maintain their love. If they don't take the time for romantic activities and experiences that draw them together, something precious begins to slip away. It doesn't have to be that way, of course, but the currents of life will separate them unless efforts are made to remain together.
I wish every newly married couple knew about the law of disintegration and actively protected their relationship from it.
-- Taken from the Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Dr. James Dobson.
1 comment:
I also recently read Love & Respect and have been amazed as well at how much of it rings true. You are very right though that it is far too easy to slip right back into the vicious cycle. But very few great things are accomplished without hard work, right? :) The article you pasted is also wonderful. Thank you for sharing it. :)
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