January in Review ✽ Hello February

Highlights:

-Noah started walking! He wants to talk, too... He's so big <3.

-Studying Colossians 3 with a friend (and like, forever after I "should" have been done with her, haha...)

-Staying with Aunt Tessa and getting to help throw an Elephant themed baby shower for my Aunt Amber and baby James.

-A precious package from a dear friend <3.

-Branching out and trying new drinks from Starbucks. I am usually a very predictable person.... I get a caramel macchiato. Every time. Haha. But we ended up getting a free smoothie when we went in one night, which was okay, considering I usually only like strawberries fresh, and then they were handing out samples of the new Cascara Latte the next day (it was pretty good too! Bold, but not bitter). Then in a fit of daring, I ordered a caramel frappuccino, and it was delicious. Then Tori let me taste a sip of her Java chip frap, and that was good too, although I didn't like the chunks in it.
Me: "This is so good!"
Tori: *takes it, takes a sip* "Bri, that tastes exactly like what you always drink."
Me: *thinks about it, realizes she might be right* "...But the texture is even better!"

-Beginning work with another local church and their respite program. It went really well, and I'm excited about where it will lead. This seems like just the door I've been looking for :).

-Getting to see some friends I hadn't seen for 18 months.

-Working on a crocheted princess Leia doll for a little friend :). I'm freestyling it because the one she saw didn't come with a pattern, so, we'll see what happens. Lol!

-Tori showing me how to draw a jellyfish, and I don't think it was a fail, although it could use some improvement.

-Setting up the snowflake tree and decorating for winter.

-Deciding to join Grace Anne in writing a letter or note every day in February. I can think of 18 notes or letters I was going to write anyway... the other ten I expect will come. This should be easy... haha ;).

-Speaking of which, catching up on my correspondence. although I owe people again now, but at least I'm not two months owing them, right?

-Actually blogging a bit. I miss this hobby being a regular part of my life.

Laughing at:

-Getting Bethi addicted to Rolos. I let her have a few I bought, and then the next time she picked out a snack, she went right for them. That was easy.

-"Soooooo," I asked, looking back at Bethi and Andrew, as Daddy pulled out of the parking lot I had been practicing driving in. "Was it what you were expecting?"
"Yup," Bethi answered. "I expected you to go as slow as a snail, and that's what happened."
"It was boring," Andrew pouted.

-Almost accidentally ordering water at Starbucks. I was telling my aunt, "When we went to get coffee with our friends this month, one of them went to get their tea cup refilled with hot water because she was liking the warmth on her hands, and the guy asked one of the other baristas, "How much do we charge for water?"..."
*Barista peeks over the counter* "Does someone need water?"
"Uhhh... no. Sorry. I'm just... telling a story."
"Oh, that's okay!"
*continues* "And then the barista must have told him that it comes free, because next thing we know, we hear him holler out, "How much do we charge for the energy to make water hot?"
*cringes as I realize that the barista is looking my way again to make sure no one is asking for water*

-Me: "I bet Evynne Hollens will do "Somewhere out there" since she's on a Disney song kick. That would be so fun!"
*checks youtube three days later*
New subscriptions: Peter Hollens: Somewhere out there
"Close enough."

-Tori, as we listen to a song: "What is she even saying?"
Mama and I: "Not sure. Your words have faith? Your wounds are faith?"
*Mama looks up the lyrics*
"Ohhhhhhhh, "your wounds have made a way."
??????

-Bible time, Daddy asks if everybody is done being loud so we can read.
Josiah: *Leans against the door and coolly remarks, as if it's an obvious loosing battle* "...There are a lot of people in here?...".
Tori mentioned it was like Peter when Jesus asked "who touched me?" and he just kind of looks around like, "Ummm, Jesus do you have eyes? There are so many people shoving I doubt they even know?"
Peter was so human, haha...

-Gramma re-shares a link she tagged me in on Facebook a year ago.
Me: "Awwww, the hedgehog is cute"
*looks at old comments* Me a year ago: "Awwwww, the hedgehog is adorable!"
In some ways I never change.

-Me: "Tori, come look at this mouse skateboarding on our bathroom tile."
Tori: "Why did you show that to me? Now I will never be able to not see that."

-Sitting down to play the piano with Josiah and Noah... next thing I know, Noah's toes are on the keyboard while he chews them, and it's anything but a melodious sound, haha!

-Peter, who only found out he was "bigger" than Josiah a couple months ago:
"Ohhhhhhh, I was born before Josiah and Noah? So that's how I got bigger than him!"

-Peter: "I'm four, Josiah, you are two."
Josiah: "NO. I am four, you are two."
"No, I am this much." *holds up fingers* "You are this."
*Back and forth for a while*
Josiah changes tactics: "You are four. *I* am *this much*. *holds up six fingers*

Quotes I liked:

-"The decisions we make today determine the stories we tell about our lives tomorrow." -Pastor Dude

-"it's a losing battle
but a soldier fights anyways" -Julia Ryan
I don't know, y'all. I just loved that line when I read it in one of her posts.

-"Doing something different calls for repentance — turning around and heading in a different direction. As believers, we have “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10, ESV). We’re being changed. If it’s time to turn toward a new way of thinking or doing, commit to doing that now, asking for strength and grace from the Lord who specializes in making all things new." -Pam Foster from Doorposts

-"It is true that justice demanded that Christ should bear the burden which as a substitute he undertook to carry, but Jehovah always loved him, and in love laid that load upon him with a view to his ultimate glory and to the accomplishment of the dearest wish of his heart." -Charles Spurgeon (I'm pretty sure, lol. I read several online commentaries around this time.)

Reading:

-"Radiant". I enjoyed this book, and started a list of people to find more biographies of, haha :).

-"In His Steps". Which I started in November, but the middle was kind of slow, and so it took me a while to push past it. I liked the Bishop that was introduced in the last half of the book, I wish more of what he did was in the middle of the book instead of after, haha!

-"Scout", which was more of a young boys book, but I picked it up off of Andrew's shelf from boredom one day while I was putting Josiah to sleep, so Andrew gave it to me to finish, and I didn't want to disappoint him. It was actually pretty good, it just had that younger reader feel that is hard to get caught up in.

-"Foxe's Book of Martyrs", because I don't remember it hardly at all, and want to.

-Colossians 3... what else ;)?

Fails:

-Calling the bank to see if my card was on it's way because I was going to be out of town and it was hitting the maximum time I was told to wait, and then they probably think I'm a scam because I gave them Bethi's social security number.

-Then realizing that that probably means I gave the church her number when I went to take the training class to work with their special needs program. Yep.

-Realizing I have something I'm not sure what it is charged to me on my receipt, and going back in to ask about it. "I didn't get any jewelry making?" "Oh, I just hit the wrong button, that's one of your yarn balls." But I only had seven balls, not eight? So, she refunded it, and I went back to the car... to turn around and take the eighth ball, that I found under Noah's seat in the car, back in. I will probably never go back into a store to question $4 again. I wanted to cry.

-Giving Josiah extreme anxiety over people not being seen for even just a scene or two in movies, presumably because Daddy came home from dropping me off at the special needs respite without me; he cries if he doesn't know that all the characters are accounted for. This is the child who formerly just kind of threw his arm over the back of the chair and looked invincible if a movie became worrying. Also, he couldn't find me the other night and so he wailed, "Bri! I love you!" in a pitiful, don't punish me sort of way. This from the child who usually tells you "Hi" to make you tell him you love him, because it's weak to tell you he loves you first.

Grateful for:

"I will give thanks to the Father who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints of light, and steadfastly continue thanking God in my prayers, being watchful in them with thanksgiving. For I have received Christ, and will walk in him, rooted and built up, established in the faith by him, as I was taught, and abounding in thanksgiving; rejoicing in my sufferings for Christ’s sake, rejoicing in the good order and firmness of faith of his children, singing hymns with thankfulness in my heart to God. I will do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And be thankful.
May it be so, Lord." (Prayer formed from the commands to be thankful in Colossians)

-Getting to listen to music while I drink tea with Josiah (almost) nightly.
-All the reading I have been able to do lately :).
-Noah's little grin.
-Hugs.

-Peter's chatter after he asks you to lay on his bed for a few minutes before he is tucked in<3.
-Being able to crochet, and some of the neat tips I've seen this month :).
-My journaling bible! I love it so much! I've been using that bible to study Colossians, and it's become a colorful couple of pages, haha :).
-That the Lord is always with us!
-Anyone who cared enough to make it to the end of this post... haha :).

I hope you've had a wonderful January... happy February!!!