One Thousand Gifts

There is so much I want to copy and paste from this book . . . I am truly relishing it.
Phrases such as,
"All is Grace"
"All is Well"
"deep seeing"
"the remedy is in the eye"
"I pay tribute to God by paying attention"


But for now
I will share some of my list to urge you to start one as well . . .

1. Sweet sounds of a child
2. Rays (not the husband, the sun's) through the window
3. Dreams of a dog
4. Shades on the leaves
5. Fun day trip to Athens
6. Car ride with Aunt Peggy
7. Time of Joy with Mama
8. Lunch with Land
9. Joy-filled Daye
10. Bird chirping waking me up
11. Tay feeding Daye breakfast so I can sleep in
12. Sunshine
13. Friend's being pregnant
14. Baylor's heart checking out healthy from the Dr
15. Daye napping
16. Daye playing peek-a-boo
17. Laughing at Momastery
18. Golf Date with Ray
19. Phillip Phillips winning American Idol
20. Lunch with Linds
21. Honest feedback from a friend on what it's like to be on the other side of me
22. The book, One Thousand Gifts
23. Daye sleeping til 8:30 this morning

Date Night - Steel Canyon and Smash Burger and Phillip Phillips

Last night Ray and I went on a date.

It was awesome.

We played golf.

We played at Steel Canyon, a par 3 course right up the road we never knew existed.
We had a great time.
As Ray was checking in at the club house I literally pulled some spider webs off my head covers.
It had been a long time.

I had some terrible shots.
I mean awful.
A wiff here or there.
A few only making it inches from where I took my swing.
But,
I also had a some good ones.
Ones that made the right sound.
Ones that actually lifted off the ground.
One that even rolled right up to the same spot as Ray's.
And on one hole
I made a par.
And Ray made a bogey on that one.
It was delightful.

I actually have golf shoes too.
I wore them.
These are the shoes that took me close to 2 hours to decide on.
My family has never let me forget it.
They are still as clean as the day I purchased them.
Or actually, my dad purchased them.
Good thing I took so long to decide on them
Since I use them so often.
But man! Did they look good.
And squish good on those greens.

I drove the cart.
I love driving the golf cart.
Sometimes more than playing.

The date took us back to high school.
Ray and I played golf quite a bit in high school.
At Indian Hills.
With Reid and Emery.
And Daddy, too.
Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole.
Did you know Ray and I went to high school together?
Did you know we dated in high school?
Another story.
Another time.
A great great story,
for another time.
:)

After golf
we went to Smash Burger
We have 5 burger joints within walking distance from our house.
We've walked to 2 so far.
Smash Burger was good.
Not as good as Five Guys.
We sat outside.
We talked about how he introduced me to ketchup.
Well, not actually introduced me,
but, stuck with me long enough to see the process of deciding I would finally try it.
Then finally decide to like it.
There's a pattern here,
have you caught it?
I take a long time to make decisions
about very unimportant things
like golf shoes
and ketchup.
And eating my steaks less than well done.
And actually dipping my chips in salsa.

After Smash we walked to another burger joint,
McDonald's.
And we got a sundae.
With hot fudge
and nuts.
And shared it and loved it and decided it had taken us far too long to decide that McDonald's offers reasonably priced dessert.
Dollar Menu Ice Cream Sundaes are the best.

Then
of course
we watched American Idol finale
and it was awesome.
I could have given or taken a few of the performances
but to see the top 12 come back together
and sing together
and picture them having so much fun together
and then to see some of them perform with legends
and then to see Phillip Phillips
get all choked up
and not be able to carry on
my new favorite song, "Home"
and just collapse into his family's arms
Oh!
I just loved it
I may or may not have watched it again this morning.
Just to see the end again.
And if you haven't watched it yet
I do apologize for just ruining the results.

Another random post.
Good thing I have an outlet somewhere

And, here are my golf shoes

lovely, right?

hiya

had a little vacation at birdie and poppie's for the last 2 weeks! 

it was fun exploring in their cabinets

and drawers

and dog beds.

I mostly loved swimming in their pool! "Really, Daddy?!! I really get to swim today?! Oh Boy Oh Boy!!"

At one point we had 5 dogs there!

It was a lot of entertainment for me.

We went to watch a bike race in Sandy Springs. "Ew, why does that man have on such tight stretchy pants?"

We had lunch with Nana and Granddaddy and Eecie one day

Brooks and I went to the Children's Museum!

We loved it!

Well would 'ya look at that?!

 I rode a tractor

We explored in the grocery store

I found some goggles and decided to wear them the rest of the day 

We drove a huge delivery truck!

We walked through tunnels

We went down slides!

Mom finally let me take a goldfish break

But not before she made me wear this ridiculously large police officer outfit

We are getting vvvveeeerrryyyyy sleepy

We went out to brunch Saturday for Mother's day. I ate more goldfish.

Who can stick the most in their mouth?!?!!??

I can! I can!

Uh, not cool Mom. 

My mom loves looking back and seeing these toes!

See ya later!

choice

If I were to sum up
last year
in a few short words
the summary would be
"I have a choice."

It came in a moment
although
it had been brewing
for probably
my whole life.

But the flip
in my thinking
in this particular
set of circumstances
happened
in a moment
or should i say
moneybags
:)

Abruptly
I heard
God whisper,
"But you have a choice"

and for some reason
I stopped.

"A Defining Moneybags"
it could be described
like that.

I have a choice

I had been caught
in the words,
"I do not trust them."

and
in the burrow
of "why,
why do I not trust them?"
it came down
to the embarrassing
truth
that I did not trust God.

And then
He responded.
He said,
"But you have a choice.
You can
or
you cannot.
It's up to you."

And for some reason
it was then
that I took hold
of the chance
to choose.

And I mouthed
the words,
"ok"
but more tentative,
almost like a question,
"ok. . .?"

Then,
I spoke the words,
"I choose to trust You."

And literally, I was
invigorated.
I was empowered.

So then,
I claimed the words,
"I choose to trust You."

And over the course
of the rest of the day
I walked a little lighter
professing,
"I have a choice!"

I have a choice
to keep analyzing
and critiquing
and having good reason to be cynical,
or
I can choose to trust.

I have a choice
to stay locked on the unpleasant
because this situation is different
because this one it's not possible to move past
the pity
the pain
that which has been broken
or
I can choose to see the Goodness.

Wow
In everything,
I have a choice.

I still stink
at choosing
what leads to Goodness.

I still choose
to sulk
to judge
to compare
to believe the lies.

But
in the times when I do
choose to trust
choose to believe
choose to laugh
choose the eternal,

it's then
that I taste
living in His Goodness;
that
which He
has given me
the opportunity
in all things
in all days
in all the moneybags of my life.

Thank you, Dear Lord
You never stop
giving me
a chance
to choose You.
And when I do
Oh! How sweet it is!

Braves Fan

Remember how much we love the Braves?

Two games already this season!

Anticipating our next one hopefully soon! (Bots??? :)

GAME I

Who's on first?

Whoa! Didya see that?!

B: "Here Daye, you can have one. But just one, ok?"

 

Ah, hurry up Mama. Take it already! Missing Bourne stealing second!

Fank you! Eyes back on the game.

Bots, Fanks so much for these tickets. I llllllooooovvvveeee coming to the game!

 

First Game for Brooks!

This is totally uncool to have our picture taken like we are tourists or something. At least my hat is backwards, that adds some hipness

GAME II 

Chop Chop! (pardon the pun) let's go, games gettin' started

Nice pitch

You see that guy run on the field like a crazy man and get tackled by the police? that's funny!

B: "Here let me get that Daye, just somfin on your face"

Man, it's pretty hot today! 

I think I'm about to fall asleep. Braves games wear me out. My mom always talks about how much she loves when that happens . . .? And Brooks is doing some sort of nanu nanu sign with his fingers.

sunshine

I've basically dropped off the blogging face of the earth
This sunshine and warm weather gets us outside more
and this toddler(?!?!) who actually does toddle around
gets me off the couch more

Random thoughts for this Thursday:

I've been wanting to list our fun date nights (which I used to do such a good job of) so you would hear about more fun places you should go eat.

I've been wanting to share more food for thought on things I learned in counseling.

Daye has her first scrapes on her knees from the toddling that ends in falls on the pavement. Bukes said yesterday, "she needs some knee pads!" I may invest in some, who knows? :)

We are going to the Braves game again today! 2nd game of the season for us! How about that game last night?!?

I actually didn't see the game last night. I watched American Idol instead.
I love American Idol.
Holly is the ultimate creeper - in a good way . . . I like her more and more every week. But Philip Philips is still my favorite. Although, Randy calls him Phil Philips every week and I also say, "Randy, he doesn't go by Phil. He goes by Philip." But I guess it's easy to get tongue tied when someone has the same name for his first and last.

Did you know my dad's name is Stevie Stephens? It doesn't look as repetitive as Philip Philips. But it sounds it. Only it sounds like Randy would want it to sound. An abbreviated first name that is much like the last name.

And actually his real name isn't Stevie. It's George.

I love how right after I tell someone how much Phelps has calmed down, the next time I come home he has completely mutilated the wax paper dispenser box. All over the house. Even the sharp edge part that you cut your sheet off. He's still crazy. Who am I kidding.

I've been told that Daye reminds someone of Frankenstein when she walks. In the most loving way possible. I laughed so hard about that I almost peed my pants.
I may or may not have started to call her Frank.

Autocorrects when typing on my phone are also reasons to pee my pants. Some of my favorites:
(First word is what comes out from autocorrect, second word is what was intended.)
Faye - Daye
Ray - Tay
Jefferson - Beccs
Moneybags - moment
Bahamas - baaaaahahhahha
-
so for instance I could type a text to my sister saying, "Tell your kids that Aunt Sal and uncle Ray Ray love them"
and she could reply, "Who is uncle Ray Ray? That is creepy"
Then I could repsond, "Bahamas"
and she could reply, "What?"
and then I could be peeing my pants as I carefully try to spell, "baaaaaahahahaha I was trying to say baaaaaaahahahha because I was laughing about Ray. and then about bahamas  . . . "
you get the idea
utter confusion
but great blessings of unexpected laughter!

Now I'm off to the Braves Game.
I will post some pictures later!

If you've just wasted the last 5 minutes reading this post, I do apologize.