Do you ever feel as though God speaks directly to you?

Clearly, God did not come down and actually talk to me in person, but I feel as though He has used a lot of different avenues this week to speak to me.

If you remember, I vowed to better myself this year. Quality, not quantity.

So...I try to find ways in which to better myself. I was "involved" in a women's Beth Moore bible study this fall. I say "involved" because I was only able to make two meetings due to illness. Same this semester. I finally just pulled out, but I am trying to catch up on the study at home on my own. I was reading all about agape love and how we must strive to love others the same way God does. We studied several verses in Proverbs. After reading the "assigned" verses, I let myself read on and that book really caught my interest. Here it is, 10:30 at night, and I am sitting in my bed, reading a verse that make me want to cry, and then read the next verse and makes me laugh out loud...all by myself, in my bed.

I have been complaining A LOT lately about how sick my kids are and how it puts a damper on our social lives. I realize that we could have it a lot worse, but it doesn't change our day to day. The night that I was really losing it, I sat down and read this verse:

Proverbs 21:19 "Better to live in a desert than live with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife"

HOW FUNNY IS THAT!!

Then I read on....

Proverbs 21:9 "Better to live in the corner of the roof than share a lovely house with a crabby wife"

Now..I was reading the Life Application Bible, so they used "crabby", most versions use "quarrelsome". However, I liked crabby better!! Because..I sure have been crabby lately :)

So that lead me to last night....

Side note: There are several people that I know and love and LOTS more that I hear about who are really struggling in their marriages right now. I still have scars from my own parent's break up, and subconsciously fear the same will happen in my marriage.

Now, before you all go and get concerned about us......OUR MARRIAGE IS GREAT!! I really couldn't ask for a better husband and mate. Not only does he tell me he loves me, he shows me all the time. He tells me how happy he is and I am happy as well. Still....if Satan lets my mind wander, I worry about what "could be". Yes..I am a worry wart. :)

So...back to last night. With my head held high, I asked Brent if there were things that I could work on that would make him a happier husband, daddy, etc. He looked at me like I was crazy and pretended to fall asleep :) I honestly wanted some constructive criticism, and he finally gave it to me. I was so happy to hear of a few things I could work on. He was so sweet. They were all very minor things, but I was glad that we could have a healthy discussion about how we could make our wonderful marriage even more outstanding. I told him about the verses I had read in Proverbs and how I didn't want to be that "crabby" wife and make him want to sleep in the corner of the roof.

Then, today at church, we studied a lot more verses from Proverbs. We learned about how to hold our tongues in certain situations. It was a great lesson. There was an astonishing statistic that Preacher Mark told us about today. He said that a psychologist studied 100 couples for the first decade of their marriages. He learned that couples who (in the first year of marriage) spoke less than 5 negative or degrading comment out of 100, to their spouse, would end up staying married and happy. He also found that if 10 or more degrading comments per 100 would lead to divorce. That is amazing.....and sad. We must use our tongues to build our spouses up not put them down. I know that I have to watch it, because sometimes I find myself spatting off things that Brent could work on, all the while knowing how great of a husband and father he is. He needs to hear those things more.

All this to say, it is amazing how God uses scripture and sermons, and all kinds of other venues to speak to me.

I VOW TO BE LESS CRABBY THIS COMING WEEK!!

It is well with my soul....

My mom recently told me a bit of the story behind the song, "It is well with my Soul." I decided to do a little more research. It was written by a man named Horatio Spafford in 1873. He lost his son in 1871, then in 1873, he and his wife and three girls were planning a trip to Europe. He sent the family ahead, and the ship they were on collided with another ship, and it sunk. All FOUR daughters were killed and the wife, Anna, survived. As he rode a ship across the ocean to meet is wife, he wrote the lyrics to this song. He began writing them at the point in the sea where the ship had sunk with his daughters on it. Like I have said before, we sing songs all the time and never really think about what we were saying. After reading about this, I reread the words, and now have such a greater appreciation for it.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Catching up............

Well....this post will not catch you up on our family photos. It will catch you up on the lives of the Mundies through words....I know..boring right? :)

Our lives have been far from perfect the last few weeks. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends and family, our holiday was darkened with sickness. Right after Parker's 14 month appointment, Savannah brought home some sort of upper respiratory infection (from the doctor's office, I'm sure). She was sick, but it didn't really affect her, just snotty and such. She got better on Christmas Day-ish, and then we left for Knoxville the next day. Parker began the trip awfully cranky, but we just thought it was from the long drive. After a couple of days of crankiness, he started getting the same symptoms Savannah had the week before. By Tuesday morning of our trip, Parker was very snotty and both eyes were swollen shut. We decided to take him in to the doctor while in Knoxville. We were told he had an upper respiratory called adenovirus, which caused two ear infections and conjunctivitis. He was running a slight fever that day, but they gave him some antibiotics and sent us on our way. Well.....about three hours later, Parker's fever spiked to 103.8, which sent him into what is called a febrile seizure. These seizures happen due to a rapid increase or decrease in body temperature in some children ages 1-5ish. What we saw was a little child go from acting fairly normal (sick normal) to completely out of it. His eyes rolled back in his head and he was completely unresponsive to my voice. His lips were also turned a blue/gray color. So, because we didn't know what was going on (seizure didn't even cross our mind) we rushed him to the ER. It was the most terrifying experience. Luckily, even as he was getting into the car to go to the ER, he came out of the seizure a little bit and was looking around. By the time we got to the ER, he was crying and responding. His fever was still really high, but the doctors got it down with some meds and a fluid IV pump. After he stabilized, they transferred us to the Children's hospital for more observation. He responded to treatment well, and we finally made it home at 2 in the morning. So, at 10, we left from Knoxville to go to Atlanta. Parker seemed to be getting better, so we were pleased.

I took him into the doctor when we finally made it home here, just to check everything and make sure his ears were clear. The doc gave him a clear bill of health, however warned me that his ears looked "a little" red but was probably because he was screaming during the exam. That was Friday.

Last night, we were back at the urgent care clinic due to similar symptoms and a spike in fever. We did not have a seizure, but the boy is sick! The ear infection is either still there or has returned, snot flowing, and a cranky cranky boy.

I am starting to wonder if he is going to be prone to ear infections like his daddy, so this issue could become a way of life for the next few years. But not only that, since now he is a little more likely to have seizures, we have a bigger issue. Generally, ear infections come with sudden spike in fever, which in Parker's case, can cause a seizure. This could get interesting......

I just pray for it to all go away, but if we do have to deal with it for a while, I pray that God will give us the energy to handle it. I guess only time will tell.

On a lighter note, Christmas was still VERY fun and we loved spending time with everyone. No drama other than the sickness, so other than that, it was a fairly relaxing trip. We got some great gifts too, which included a new bike from my mom.

My plan is to start riding it A LOT in the near future (when it warms up a bit). Along with the aforementioned diet, my plan is to ride the bike and run using my new heart rate monitor my sweet hubby gave me!

As far as other news, Brent is going to be traveling A TON the next few months, so that will be interesting. Luckily he is only gone about three days at a time. I am very proud of him because he was chosen out of like 3983094830493 people to go on a special TDY (business trip). It is definitely an honor to be chosen....

Savannah is getting so smart. Not only does she know how to write all her letters and count to 40, she is now learning addition and subtraction and LOVES it!

We are still having a hard time choosing a church. We do not feel that any place is a good fit, which makes life hard. There are very few choices here, and I feel that we are going to have to settle somewhere and just make it work. Every time I feel like I am leaning toward one place, then I start to feel unhappy for one reason or another. I ask for prayers on this matter and that we will be able to figure something out soon. I hate the back and forth all the time.

Well, thanks to any of you who stuck with me for this whole post. Even if no one reads it, I love writing, so it is good therapy.

Happy blogging...pictures to come soon :)

Ok...diet...here we go!

Well...here we go...going to try and start this diet/exercise thing up again....and unfortunately, i have gained a little more weight, so now i must lose 20 lbs!! i'll keep you posted!

14 month stats!

So...I have been SO terrible about keeping up with Parker's stats, but here is what I know as of today.

We had a VERY late 1 year visit.

Weight: 25 lbs
Height: 32 inches
Words: Mama, Dada, Up, Ball, Ba Ba(bottle), Ruff Ruff
Teeth: 12 (four on top, four on bottom, and all four molars-almost)

He has been dealing with a lot of snot and congestion, so the doctor gave us some zyrtec. He also has a little fluid in one of his ears, so we are going to have to monitor that....great...

Because I was so late to get him in for the 12 month visit, his next visit is only in a month, for the 15 month well baby visit! I really hope the zyrtec works and that the fluid is gone.

Savannah's Christmas Program Night

We were close to missing Savannah's first Christmas show due to illness, but we made it and she was the cutest little thing ever!!