somebody stop time, please!!!

oh my goodness. molly had her first day of kindergarten yesterday. she LOVED it. dustin and i dropped her off together....we both held it together - but dad got a little teary. it's just crazy that she is in school now. i mean, before you know it she'll be getting her driver's license and heading to college! of course, there's so much fun to look forward to with every stage of life...but sometimes don't you just want to keep them little forever? sigh.

and my big adelyn joy is peeing on the potty!! she's really been getting it down the last 2 days...only 1 accident so far today. we got dum-dum suckers as a potty reward, and every time she's done peeing, she promptly says, "sucker?". she had 3 before noon today. :) still haven't mastered pooping yet. which i just really don't get. so many kids seem to have issues with pooping on the potty - i mean, really? you really would rather have that squished into a pull-up? whatevs. we'll get there soon enough. i'm just glad she's at least getting the peeing down.

on a completely different note...

volleyball training/conditioning week is over. i feel pretty good about my team. hoping for a great year. i was really happy to sleep in til 8:00 today! i was pretty worn out! my life's about to get crazy hectic....and, oh yeah, dustin and i are coaching basketball this year. yep, that means practice in the gym from august to march. yikes. but we're looking forward to it. that's all for now!

artist & athlete

welp.....dustin & i decided today that we have an artist & an athlete on our hands.  can you guess which of our girls is which?  

we went to the doctor today for adelyn's 2 yr well check-up.  yes, we're a little late (she is 2 yrs, 4 months) - but hey, we're blackburn's.  all went well....and we found out she is in the 75th percentile for height!!  who knew?  we've heard that you can double your child's height at age 2, and that is about how tall they will be as an adult.  which means molly will be about 5'2", and adie will be about 5'10"!!!  what?!?!  i must admit, when dustin and i figured the math on adie's height, and looked at each other.....we both kind of got excited.  she is really tough, really even-keeled about most everything, and easy to teach.....or coach. :)  and if she really is gonna be 5'10", we may just have an all-star setter on our hands!!  (i can't help automatically thinking about volleyball.)  we measured adie on our measuring wall for molly, and she is currently as tall as molly was on her 3rd birthday.  cool.

and then we decided we should probably just go ahead and encourage molly in her artistic/creative abilities.  she's too dramatic for sports (although i think she'd be a really good athlete), and she's just so good at singing, drawing and imagining!!  so that's really cool too.  

i'm so very proud of my girls.  they both bring so much joy to my world - i have no idea what i would do without them.  i'm loving spending time with them this summer...which makes me super thankful for my job.  thank you Jesus for my precious children!!  

time is fleeting

"you have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.  each man's life is but a breath." -psalm 39:5

for the last couple weeks, i have been struck by the weight of this passage....realizing it in my own life.  seriously, where has time gone?  on tuesday i took molly to kindergarten round-up at gap creek elementary school - what the heck?  since when do i have a child entering school?  really?!  (she loved every minute of it, by the way.  she is totally pumped about starting and she "can't wait to eat in the cafeteria".)  i just can't believe it.  i can't believe that molly is 5 1/2 when i can so clearly remember the day of her birth like it was yesterday.  dustin and i talked about all of this this morning...(he even got teary...shhhhh) and it is just so unreal.  and i don't want to waste my life.  i want to serve and love Jesus in the way i live, and it seems that i've just kind of "gotten by" for the last 5 1/2 years without TRULY asking how God wants me to serve Him.  i mean, sure, i've tried to raise my kids to know and love Him, and i've tried to do my job with integrity and have tried to point people to God......but i don't know that i have truly sought out His will for my life every single day - and now 2,007ish days later it hits me.  life IS fleeting.  and i want to make the most of it.  Jesus help me!

how do you do it?

my life seems crazy busy.  lately i have felt like there's not enough time in the day to get everything done that needs to be done.  so generally, i feel lousy because i'm not doing GREAT at much of anything......there is always a pile of laundry to be washed or put away; that one year bible thing?  yeah, always reading extra to catch up; bathrooms clean?  no, not really; dog fed?  sometimes....i usually DO remember, but sometimes i'm a little late;  on time anywhere?  nope.  i'm officially a blackburn (and being late is my #1 pet peave....sigh); exercising?  wait a minute - what is that?

how do you do it?  how do you keep up with all that motherhood and a full-time job require and feel like you're doing it all WELL?  things are always being neglected - like blogging...defintiely not a top priority, obviously, cleaning the bathrooms, quite time with Jesus, quality time with Dustin, the never-ending laundry......it could just go on and on!!!  and, of course, i wouldn't trade my children for anything in the world - but this motherhood thing definitely ain't for sissies.  i guess the responsibility of it all just gets overwhelming at times - and i want to do the best that i can....but sometimes my best isn't very good, and i hate that.  your advise?  how do you do it?  

my one year bible

i am really enjoying my new one year bible.  i got it a week ago or so and it has been so good for me.  i have been struggling to stay in the word for quite some time really - and each time i would sit down to read, i felt like i was floundering to find what to read.  so i would be frustrated and feel ridiculous (i DID graduate from a bible college, for heaven's sake) and generally put it away without reading much of anything.  

so anyhow....a few weeks ago it seemed i kept reading things or hearing others mention a one year bible, so i thought, "hey, doesn't sound like a bad idea...and maybe this would help me get back into really loving my time with the Lord".  so i start in the middle of february and the bulk of what i read is from leviticus in the old testament.....not typically what i would call "fun" reading by any stretch of the imagination.  but God is meeting me in these times of reading through leviticus.  

the other day i read of bezalel (i think that was his name) and how God had given him special artistic talents and he was the guy God used to make all the intricate details of the tabernacle.  there was all this fabric with detailed embroidery and golden and wooden stuff.  anyhow.....the israelite community supplied bezalel with everything he needed to do what God had called him to do.  and it emphasized this (or this is what was emphasized to me when i read)....that the community continued to give and give and give until finally bezalel had to tell them to stop giving!  so that made me think....what if our faith communities (or churches) were like that?  what if we were to give and give and give???  how would God use that to help bring shalom to our communities?  

and then i read today about moses purifying aaron and his sons to be the priests in order for them to be able to present sacrifices on behalf of the israelites.  wow....it was quite a process!  i mean lots of specific instructions on wear to put blood, how to put it, what to burn and where to burn it.....i mean SO much stuff.  all so the unholy priests could be made holy in order to be able to make things right between the unholy israelites and our very holy God.  

i'm not for sure what to think about all of this....  on one hand - i sure am glad that none of this sacrificing stuff has to happen any more.  that i don't have to bring a dove or goat or anything to give to a priest in order to make things right between me and God.  and it makes me so thankful for what Jesus has done in order for me NOT to have to do all of that.  but then on the other hand....b/c i have not had to go through all of the sacrificing stuff that the israelites had to - i don't know that i appreciate truly the gift of Jesus' sacrifice.  not sure if this is making sense.....  but all of it to say i am so thankful for what Jesus has done for me - but i know i'm not thankful enough.

teary eyed

i have watched a decent amount of the inauguration today of president obama.  and for some reason, i keep tearing up!!  i hate politics mostly, and really don't pay much attention to a lot of it.....i couldn't tell you where politicians stand on certain issues or anything.  but there is something momentous about this day that just keeps getting me all teary.  when i think about the suffering that so many black people have gone through in this country because of stupid, racist white people it gets me so mad and upset.....but then to know that our country now has a black president is just incredible.  i have enjoyed hearing the news people talk of martin luther king jr and his "dream" and vision for what this country could be......and seeing a little bit of that dream realized today was just historical.  i know that we have a long way to go to get rid of all racism in this country, but to know that enough people of all races voted for president obama is just really cool, i think.    

common meal

last sunday our church (crossings...love it) moved to market square for worship and we started having 2 services. dustin and i decided that molly is getting old enough now that she could sit in "big church" for one service and start learning from mark's teachings.  she did very well throughout the service (we asked her afterwards what mark taught about and she replied, "mostly about jacob."  she was dead-on).  beforehand, dustin and i had talked about communion....would we let molly take it?  we both grew up in christian churches where the "norm" is that you ONLY take communion if you are "a baptized believer and member of the church".  heaven forbid you be anything else.  well, there's nothing biblical about that, so dustin and i decided that, yes, we would allow molly to take communion if she wanted.  we had talked before about what communion represents, and thought molly pretty much understood.  and at crossings, all people are invited to take common meal and meet Jesus to commune with Him.  so, when it was time for common meal, i helped molly get her cracker and juice and then bowed my head for my own time with Christ.  i looked up a bit later and molly's face was streaming with tears.  i said, "baby what's wrong?"  and she said, "i was thinking about Jesus on the cross....and it's just so sad."  wow.  i had to hold back my own tears to talk it through with her....we talked about how it WAS so sad - but that Jesus had to die to save us....and that He rose again.  (woo-hoo!!)  sure, she may not really understand the depth of Jesus' sacrifice yet (do any of us, really?) - but she gets it.  and she believes in Jesus.  and we are so happy to be a part of a faith community that allows us to make decisions like that - decisions, that ultimately, we think, will help our girls genuinely love Jesus and hopefully help them grow into a love-relationship with their Savior.....all without somebody checking the "baptized" and "membership" lists.  thank you, Lord!!!!