Friday, May 11, 2012

mother's love


[photo credit]

since recently becoming a mom and coming to grips with the unexplainable force of nature that is a mother's love, it's made me think a lot about my own mom and that love she must have felt towards my brother and me when we were babies.

all those times she would say to us (whether in so many words or with just a look), "i fed you, bathed you, changed your diaper, you ungrateful child!" if only i could take back every eye roll. it breaks my heart now to think of the heartache we've caused her in the years that have followed and makes me so much more grateful for the amazing job she's done to have endured it all with so much love and grace and beauty still left to give.

i only hope i can follow in her lovely footsteps.



on a different mother's day note, how come it is so much harder to get together gifts and mail them out in a timely fashion with a baby? yes, i am the crazy lady wrapping gifts at the post office at 4:55 p.m. and yes, i am the worried daughter that has an icky feeling she might have sent pyo-mom a framed picture of park-mom with james and vice versa. this could be bad.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

family fun day in la

last friday, joe took the day off from work and took james and me to venice and santa monica for a fun-filled day of good eats and quality family togetherness.



rewind back a week before that though and the picture wasn't quite so pretty. what was supposed to be our fun day in LA instead became a conflict of epic proportions, including (with details to spare): driving out to santa monica, driving right back, tears, anger, el dorado park/marshalls, road kill, boba (somehow got to fit that in hehe), more anger, silent treatment, and santa monica again. whew. let's just say my instagram got to take a nice little vacay that day.

honestly sometimes i feel like my nasty days outweigh the not-as-nasty. marriage, motherhood, family, friendships, church, ministry -- such good things, but when they start to stray from my genius master plan for the universe that revolves around me, it's game over!

i finally sat down and watched this video that's been up, down and all around my facebook wall this week. hello, tears! (very different from the "i hate everything!" tears from 2 weeks ago). what a reminder of how beautiful and amazing marriage is when centered not on the people and what we can bring to the table, but Christ, the ultimate example and embodiment of love.



"when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay."

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

room for the little one

yesterday at james' 9 month check-up i got another reminder from our pediatrician to child-proof our house as james becomes more mobile so i figured i should really get some photos of the nursery before any of this rearranging, removing, padding, covering actually takes place. (any tips, moms??)

thankfully it happened to be a decent day where his room was relatively clean. heaven forbid the blog-world catch wind of the version where drooly bibs retire on various pieces of furniture and a massive humidifier sits most obtrusively next to the bowl of doritos mom was munching on while watching baby play, right? ;)



ROOM DETAILS:
crib - pottery barn kendall crib via craigslist with skip hop mod dot crib sheet and crib skirt made by donna
mobile - ikea fabler hot air balloon mobile (no longer sold)
burlap bunting - DIY adapted from here
lighting - world market maru round paper lantern
dresser - ikea hemnes dresser via craigslist with button knobs in various colors from anthropologie (no longer sold)
lamp - ikea bran table lamp
alarm clock - thrifted
wall art - air transportation print gifted by janice, alphabet and hot air balloon prints made by me
mirror - target frameless circle mirror with rope pulled off old drawstring pouch
laundry - ikea kusiner mesh basket in red
chair - ikea ektorp jennylund chair via craigslist with gray check slipcover gifted by pam
wall color - benjamin moore stonington gray