Focus on Joy

Today was riding lessons for the kids... they both have discovered a true love for horses and riding and I love watching them develop new skills and get better each week. As I watched them today I really thought of something I read here in a friend's newsletter today...

Trade exploration for FOCUS.The younger you are, the more experimenting you should do. But once you’ve found what you were created to do, stick with it and continue to learn.

Will has always struggled with "focus" whether it's in the classroom, in a conversation or an activity... something has to be really good and/or important to hold his attention for very long! So as I watched him ride today and go from walk to to trot to canter over and over and jump x's over and over it hit me how FOCUSED this boy is on horseback. He has discovered something that he is passionate about and truly loves to do. The joy and determination are written all over his face when he rides. He intimately cares for those horses and just loves being in their presence. So today (day 3-01/03/12) I am grateful for Brittany and the wonderful trainers/staff at Sommerview Farm for allowing my kids the joy of horseback riding and particularly for helping Will find what he was created to do and to trade exploration for focus... focus on riding well, focus on safety and above all focus on joy!

New Beginnings and Running Shoes

Day 2 (01/02/12) Today I am thankful for my ability to run and the fact that I live somewhere that I can run outdoors year round...

As we begin a new year I can't help but feel giddy as I always do at the possibilities of new goals and resolutions for the upcoming year... and yet my success rate at keeping most of my goals/resolutions is not that high! But there's just something about a new year and a seemingly clean slate erased of past failures, past mistakes and lack of success in previous years. So today I embark on new goals for 2012... I have 12 goals for 12 months in the year 2012... My first goal is to run 50 miles a month for a total of 600 miles this year. I'm planning on running the River Run (a 15k) in Jacksonville March 10th then perhaps a 1/2 marathon in the fall. What are your goals/resolutions for this year? Whatever they are... here's to much success in 2012!

Gratitude

what if you woke up with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?

This past November, there was a movement on Facebook to post something each day that you were thankful for. I participated and through that month I began to really take stock in everything, both little and big, that I had in my life to be thankful for. As I created our Christmas card (a year in review) and took a look back on 2011, I must admit that my family had an amazing year. We traveled a lot, my kids participated in many wonderful sports & activities, we had visits from many loving family and friends, we experienced many "firsts" and the list could just go on and on... but as I reflected on our very blessed year I couldn't help also reflecting on a year that was also painful and hard for so many of our dear family and friends... the loss of Kip's grandmother Mimi in June, a friend that lost her father very unexpectedly, two friends that buried their husbands much too young, a precious young schoolmate of my children that fought so hard but lost her battle with cancer, the state of our economy and job loss for so many, several friends that are experiencing the pain of separation and/or divorce, friends diagnosed with and battling life-threatening illnesses, major weather disasters that devastated entire cities and unfortunately this list could go on and on as well.

As I reflected on these two lists I was torn between multiple emotions... joy for the amazing things we were blessed with in 2011, sadness for those things that stole joy from so many and then somewhere in the middle was a strange sort of guilt that our year was such a joyful year while others had more pain than I can honestly even wrap my mind around. Comfort came in this verse... 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 be joyful ALWAYS, pray CONTINUALLY and give thanks IN ALL circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

So this was my challenge to myself in 2012... to really strive to live out this verse every moment of every day. So for the next 365 days I'm going to focus on the things that I am thankful for (even the hard stuff)... and I'm going to try really hard to use this blog as both my journal and accountability on this gratitude adventure! Hope you will come along for the ride and share your thoughts as well! So here we go...

DAY 1 (01.01.11) Today I am thankful for my family. My husband that truly loves me unconditionally and my sweet kids that bring so much joy into our lives it's crazy! This was Kip's year to work Christmas and he worked a 24 hour shift Christmas Eve... no matter how many holidays he works, I still have the tendency to get a little cranky and sad that he's not home with us... but I am thankful for these two pictures of my kids and me on Christmas Eve and my sweet, exhausted hubby opening gifts Christmas morning in his scrubs because they are snapshots of our "real life" and remind me how truly blessed I am to have these three!

The Highlights of a Decade

Wow... it's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the big Y2K frenzy and we're already ten years into this century! Although there have been some incredibly tough times for our family, friends and our country in this time, we've also been blessed by some really fun milestones and memories in the last decade as well! Will's teacher Mrs. McMahan posted a fun Facebook update today about 10 favorite memories from the last 10 years so I thought it would be fun to do a blog post with a little photo review of the last 10 years for our family! These are the first 10 memories that came to mind when I read her post...

1. We started off this decade back in November 2000 with the birth of our first child Will. Such a treasured memory and the start of the amazing journey of parenthood! It's still hard to believe my sweet Y2K baby is now 9 years old!








2. 2 1/2 years later in April 2003 we shifted from a family of 3 to a family of 4 when welcomed Will's baby sister Campbell into our family! Again, how she has grown to be my sweet 6 1/2 year old little lady so fast is beyond my comprehension!







3. In June 2005, after 4 years of medical school, 6 years of residency/fellowship, we celebrated big with Kip's completion of his "training" years and became a full-fledged Neonatologist! Along with that celebration came the move for our family to Baton Rouge, LA. This move was not easy and many tears were shed as we left all our friends and life as we knew it in Louisville but now 4 1/2 years later I count that move as one of the wonderful blessings we experienced in this decade... while I still miss my friends in Louisville Baton Rouge is now home and we've made so many wonderful friends here!
(this fire truck was their "house warming" gift when we moved)





4. In 2006 and 2007 we celebrated Will and then Campbell's first day of school at The Dunham School. This school and all the amazing teachers we've had hold a very special place in our hearts! I can't imagine my kids at any other school... this is Will with Mrs. Lombardo and Campbell with Mrs. Kim on each of their first days of school ever at Dunham!







5. In February 2007 we made our first family trip to Disney World... we did a combination trip of parks and a Disney Cruise! We had lots of fun and the kids' favorite part was seeing and getting autographs from all the characters!










6. Another fun source of memories from this decade is what has become a tradition of our annual beach trip to The Beach Club the first week of June. We go along with multiple other Dunham families and share a week of good times and relaxing!















7. New Years Eve 2007 was the night of a conversation I had with my friend Lori in which we decided it would be a fun idea to train for and compete in Rocketchix a local triathlon here at LSU. So we convinced our friend Carolyn to join us and the three of us trained and on May 4, 2008 we did it! It was probably one of my most favorite "personal best" memories! I loved it and look forward to 2010 being the year that I get both my kids to participate in the Rocketkidz Triathlon!


8. Just a few days after the triathlon, Kip and I got to head off to Las Vegas for 5 days to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! Neither of us had been to Las Vegas and we had a ball! People watching, golf, exploring all the hotels and on our actualy anniversary (5/9/98) we spent the evening celebrating another fabulous decade (the 80s) with a Duran Duran concert at the Hard Rock Hotel! Such a fun, fun trip!



9. In January 2009 we welcomed yet another member into our family... one of the 4 legged variety. We adopted Miller our black lab puppy and now can't imagine life without him in it. The kids love playing with him and he is just the most mellow lab puppy ever! He turned a year old on November 28th and is now 85 lbs. but is still as sweet and mellow as ever!













10. In February 2009 we experienced what we will probably remember as our most wild memory of the decade. We were invited to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans by attending the Endymion Extravaganza. This is a Mardi Gras ball held in the Superdome and it was quite an experience. From the amazing floats, the wild costumes, the entertainment (Kid Rock and REO Speedwagon... I'll give you one guess which one I was able to sing along to:)) to the great company it was quite a night!



These are just some highlights from our decade... we've enjoyed many more fun times with visits to and from grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends! As I reflect on the amazing experiences and encounters our family has had over the last 10 years and thank God for our health, happiness and abundant joy I am also acutely aware that so many friends have been through great loss this decade... death, divorce, jobloss just to name a few and I pray that amongst the sadness and pain that you each can experience great joy again! I am thankful for the men and women that fight for our country each and every day and especially those that have sacrificied their life in doing so. So as we leave 2009 (and this "all over the place" blog post) to enter into the next year and decade we leave you with well wishes and prayers for a healthy and prosperous 2010! We look forward to the new and exciting memories our family will make in the next 1o years and hope that each one of you can be a part of those memories in some way! God Bless!

9 Years Ago Today...

Wow... it's been a while since I last posted! Facebook has really made me a bad blogger! So a few weeks ago Will asked me if I remembered last year on his birthday writing 8 things I loved about him (on my old blog)... he then asked me if I was going to do a "9 Things I Love About Will" post for his birthday this year and I figured that was the best reason to jump back into the blogging scene... so here we are! 9 years ago today I gave birth to my first born, my son Will. Today as we celebrate his 9th birthday I present to you 9 reasons why I love this boy to the moon and back...

1. I love his genuine and contagious smile!

2. I love his amazing memory and how he randomly will say "remember when I was two and we did..."

3. Even thought they have their typical "sibling issues" I love how much he loves his sister. He comforts her when she's sad, laughs with her when she's happy and looks out for her like any big brother should!

4. I love the notes/pictures he randomly write/draw for me to tell me he loves me.

5. I love that he still want me to tuck him in at night and tell him that "I'll see him when the sun comes up".

6. I love his gorgeous thick hair and how it falls across his forehead (even if people often tell us he needs a haircut)!
he has!

8. I love his love for all things music! I love how he can hum in various sounds and sound exactly like the Million Dollar Band. I love hearing him sing... praise and worship songs, rock songs, honor choir Christmas songs, and of course his absolute favorite The National Anthem. I love hearing him play his guitar (when he practices:) and I look forward to loving hearing him play his new drum set:):):)!

9. I love his strong will and his desire to try hard and be successful! He has his share of challenges and often gets frustrated but still tries very hard to overcome and work hard and I love it when he is successful in moving beyond the frustration and is successful with hard work!

So there you have 9 things for 9 years! He may be almost as tall as me, he may not let me kiss him in public anymore, and he may stink like crazy when he comes in from playing outside now but he will always, always, always be my sweet baby boy!

Happy Birthday Will... I know you're excited for your birthday to be on the same day as the "Iron Bowl" so Roll Tide Roll... beat Auburn for Will!!!

Blooming Where We Are Planted...

This week I mark many anniversaries of personal experiences... Next week I will attend my 20 year high school reunion (how I got that old so fast I'll never know). That is just crazy to me, but in that 20 years, I've lived in 4 states and in each of those states I've been blessed by friendships that have allowed me to deepen roots and put this whole blooming idea into action!
In 1993 I very spontaneously left my hometown to move to Birmingham, AL. I knew exactly two people in Birmingham and have no idea why I moved there other than the fact that at the time, I knew without a doubt that that was where I was meant to go... three months after moving there I met Kip and now know without a doubt why I was meant to move to Birmingham!
Fast forward 6 years and one wedding later to March 17, 1999... that fateful day know as Match Day. For those not in the medical community, this means nothing, but this is the day where eager and excited medical students find out where they are headed post graduation to enter the next stage of their medical training... residency. In most educational venues, you complete school, interview, hopefully get job offers and then choose which job you feel is best suited for you. Medical school is a bit different. Durning the 4th year of medical school, each student travels wherever they may be willing to go for residency. They then rank the programs from favorite to least favorite and submit their list knowing they could end up at any of those programs. The programs then do the same thing with their applicants and on Match Day and computer unscrambles all those lists to determine where each medical student in the whole country will go for residency. All of Kip's medical school class and their loved ones gathered in the auditorium and one by one each student went on stage, opened an envelope and read their results. I thought I was prepared and ready to go wherever the match took us. Kip opened his envelope and announced "I'll be doing residency in Louisville, KY." I immediately burst into tears... I was not as ready as I thought I was! Luckily I had a few months and a few visits to Louisville to get ready and in June 1999 (10 years ago this week) we moved to Louisville and we immediately fell in love with our new home.
Fast forward 6 years, one residency, one fellowship and two babies later and that brings us to 2005. Kip was completing fellowship and we were in our search for a "real" job! One evening he gets a call from a doctor in Baton Rouge, LA. He spoke with this doctor for sometime and after he got off the phone and informed me that there was a job opportunity in Baton Rouge that sounded very interesting and this doctor wanted him to come interview. I responded by telling him that he was more than welcome to interview but my life plans did NOT include a move to Baton Rouge, LA. Again, lucky for me I had 3 months and two visits to Baton Rouge to except the fact that yes indeed my life plan did include a move to Baton Rouge, LA. So in June 2005 (4 years ago this week) my family moved from Louisville, KY to Baton Rouge, LA. Although I was excited for Kip to finally get to do what he'd trained so long for and was so passionate about, I was absolutely devestated to be leaving all the dear friends that had deepened my roots and allowed me to bloom so beautifully in Louisville...
Fast forward 4 years and three hurricanes later and here we are today. Each day my roots here get deeper and deeper and my blooms more plentiful. As I think of my neighborhood, my kids' school, our church, the dear friends we've made here I can't help but smile and know that this is now home. As I reflect on what the future holds for our family, I can't help but wonder if our future memories will be made in this neighborhood... I also can't help but remind myself that as I reflect on the past 20 years, it has not been my plans at all that my life has followed. God has a plan for my family and He knows long before I will what it will be! The Bible study I'm doing right now says we shouldn't worry about the what ifs of tomorrow but rest in the what is of today... so for now I shall enjoy the what is of life today and depend on God to take care of the what is that will be tomorrow (and look forward to catching up with friends from the what was of high school)! For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Random Thougths...

Warning... this is a multi section post of all the things going through my brain/happening in my life this week! It has been a crazy busy week so I'm just now finally able to sit and post the multiple posts that I've had on my mind this week... so hopefully you can stick with me here...

Random Thought #1:NDP
As we commemorated the Natl' Day of Prayer this week, I spent some time reflecting on what prayer means to me and the impact prayer has had on my life. Prayer has been in my life in some form for as long as I can remember. I also know that long before I started journaling and keeping up answered prayers in my life, people were praying for me and prayers were being answered. My first memory of being taught to pray goes back to my childhood. My mom was a single mom and traveled a bit for her job, so I spent a good bit of time staying with my grandmother & great aunt who lived together. My aunt had two twin beds in her room and this is where I slept. Each night as we would go to bed, we would say our evening prayers... I'd pray the typical children's night prayer (now I lay me down to sleep...) and then I would wait until my aunt finished her prayers (which ALWAYS took much longer than mine)! I have a vivid memory of one such time when I finally asked her what prayer she prayed that took her so long to say. She went on to explain that she wasn't praying a "memorized" prayer, but was actually speaking to God from her heart. She then told me all the prayer petitions she had lifted up that night and all the people she had on her heart to pray for. This was one of my first "aha" moments in my prayer life. In my adult life, prayer has remained a constant in my life. After Will was born and I started really engaging in regular Bible study, my prayer life continued to grow. This was the point where I really started having a quiet time of prayer every day. This was also a pivotal time in HOW I prayed. I had become really good at praying for very specific needs, but began to learn a very different way to pray. I also learned that no prayers go unanswered, but often times they don't necessarily get answered the way I want or expect! During one Bible study I did, we specifically studied the purpose of prayer. It was in this study that I learned an acronym for prayer that has really structured my prayer focus as it is today. It is ACTS which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Each time I pray, I give adoration or praise for Who God is, Confession of sins, Thanksgiving for blessings/answered prayers, and supplication or making my current prayer requests known to God. This has really given me a structure for my prayer and has really given me more accountability to journal and keep up with my prayer. This study also really helped my focus my prayer intentions and taught me how to pray specific scripture for specific needs/requests!
For the last two years, I've been praying with a group of girls. We pray together every Monday very specifically for our children. This has probably had the most impact on me personally. I am so humbled by this hour where we come together and pray over each others' children, families and marriages. When I recently went to hear Beth Moore, she said that in order to become holy, we have to wholly give our life over to God. One way we do this is to be immersed in a community of fellow believers. This is specifically what this group is to me. We are friends, but we are also a close-knit community of believers that have been transformed by the power of prayer each Monday morning in a small conference room on our school's campus. As we celebrated NDP and our school year comes to a close, I am thankful for each of these girls and the impact they've had on my family's life through our prayer time. From illness to academics, school bullies to time in jail, we've prayed for it ALL and I want to let each of you know how much I love you and appreciate the time you spend praying for my family!














prayer group with Beth Moore



Random Thought #2:
Happy 11th Anniversary to my sweet hubby! I am so glad to be married to you and am so thankful for ALL you are in my life! I love you!





















Random Thought #3:
We reached a HUGE milestone with our sweet boy this week! As most of you know, Will is on the Autism spectrum (very mildly, but on the spectrum none the less) and has some quirks that we as parents don't always understand... one such quirk has been his absolute aversion to taking his training wheels off his bike! I struggle daily with my wants/needs for Will and often have a very hard time just letting him be who he is. In my mind an 8 1/2 year old (well even a 6 1/2 year old for that matter) should not have a bike with training wheels! So for two years we have tried numerous times to convince Will to take his training wheels off his bike and probably had a huge part to do with the fact that he went through a good 9 months not even riding his bike to just get me off his back! So you must know how completely delighted I was Monday afternoon when my boy came running into the kitchen to drag me outside to show me this...




















Yes, he was outside playing with some friends and just decided to get on his friends bike and try it out... and that was it. He ALREADY knew how to ride! Not a lesson to teach, not a fall to be had. So off went the training wheels and now these two little wheels and this sweet little guy are precious memories to be cherished...




















Will (age 5) in his preschool bike parade shortly after getting his new bike!

Oh and of course... Happy, Happy Mother's Day to all my sweet "mom" friends out there!
I must do a whole post on the sweet Mother's Day Tea that I attended with Will on Friday hosted by the Dunham School's 2nd grade!