Joy

I've been mulling a post on joy around in my head for the past few days.  I almost pushed the post on Joy off another day because I spent the last hour listening to the presidential debate which doesn't bring me much joy. Haha!

 I'm happy to say that after a few weeks of feeling kind of sad, grumpy, mad, worried, etc. (as noted in previous posts) I am now feeling much more like myself.  This week it seems much easier to recognize the many wonderful blessings in my life.  Here are a few...

 Carson after eating chili for lunch!

He has his "cheese" face on for this photo.

This boy is just full of joy!

Erik proud of himself for building his pirate legos all on his own!

I was proud too.  He sat and followed the instructions in the book for at least an hour.

Sweet Lainey drew this family photo at school the other day.

She is in the pink.  Carson is in the middle, Victor is the top brown figure, and I am the 

bottle brown figure.  She ran out of time before drawing Erik.

Also, notice her name.  She got all the letters need just not quite in the right order (Laniye, instead of Lainey).  Pretty impressive for a 3.25 year old!

Lainey loves school and loves letters and drawing.

 Hard workouts!

This might make me crazy but I have found a new fitness instructor I really like.

His classes are challenging and fast paced but leave you feeling strong.

I love them and have been trying to go 3x a week.

Sweet siblings.  Lainey didn't take a nap today.

She still NEEDS them or ends up reduced to a sad heap of tears by 6 PM.

Today though she spent 45 minutes giggling and playing with Erik instead of sleeping.

By the time I caught them she was too wound up to sleep.

So at 6 PM she was a blubbering mess.

Erik felt bad that she was so sad and drew this heart for her.

Very sweet.  I love it when my kiddos play and play like they are best of friends.

(There are plenty of moments when they don't but I am focusing on joyful things today!)

Victor being home!

Victor is home from his long weeks of traveling, at least for now.

So I get to sit down more at night and sleep in occasionally.

Thankful for a helpful husband (he's currently doing the dishes as I am writing this blog entry).

Autumn!

No photos for this (I forgot) but earlier this week I took the kids

to an Amish farm that sells pumpkins, flowers, fall decorations, etc.

We had a great time.  The family was really nice and Lainey and Erik had a nice time

playing on their homemade swings.  Carson LOVED the kittens and puppy.  

We've been to plenty of other Amish farms buying produce but this was my favorite one so far.

Farmers Markets!

I have started buying all my pork and beef plus most of the weeks vegetables

at a local farm stand.  I love it!  You get to buy the meat and produce straight from the farmers and it's all grown/produced locally with fairly sound growing principles. (Better than the store bought version.)

The meat especially is SOOOO much better than store bought.

Long runs and long talks.

About a month ago I started running once a week with 2 friends.  

We are all going to do a 10 mile race in a couple of weeks.

This is the first time I have spent any time running since 2006 and it has been fun to add back into my fitness routine.  These social runs have been a really big blessing to me.

We are all mom of 3 kids and seem to have quite a few similar interests, concerns, beliefs.

This past weekend I mentioned how I really have been pretty ticked at God and worried about certain people and struggling to see God's goodness and grace.  Well, Tracy immediately and confidently reassured me that my concerns were really "invalid."  She was able to quiet certain worries that I had had so well that I truthfully can say that my understanding of God's grace for us has truly been expanded.  We do have a kind, wonderful, and forgiving God.  And that brings me so much Joy!

The verses that she provided me with to support this idea are as follows....

John 10:28

John 10:29

Luke 15

John 10:27-29

Romans 8:35-39

Phillipians 1:6

1 Peter 1:5

Romans 11:29

John 6:37

John 6:39

Ephesian 1:13-14

Romans 8: 28-37

I realize many people reading this probably think I'm super crazy posting so much about my faith as I think a lot of  my family and friends have different opinions than I do.  Go ahead and think of me as crazy.  I might be, but I do know that this conversation and these passages have brought me a lot of comfort, and I needed to share these thoughts.  Especially after the grumpy ones I shared before!

What brings joy to your life??