Deconstruction

Before we can begin putting the baby's room together in it's final form, we needed to take down the previous desk furniture. Daddy got a little help from Brennan, thanks to his new-found fascination with tools (all of which he treats like a hammer, so some close supervision is necessary!).

The Final Amount

After many hours of constant snowfall yesterday, here are some shots of our back deck with the copious amounts of snow! Kudos to John for braving the cold and heading out to dig us out, all while recovering from a cold!

More Snow

Richmond is fortunate enough to be going through it's third major snowstorm in 10 months. We feel blessed to have been here for all of it! I (only half-jokingly) mentioned to John that Mother Nature felt bad that we lived in the land of constant summer for a few years and is making up for all the winter fun that we missed during that time! So far, our snow total today is around 13 inches.

John was lucky enough to purchase a shovel from Lowe's earlier this week so we no longer have to improvise when it comes to digging ourselves out. That shovel got a good breaking in earlier today! He also found a sled under our deck that's just Brennan's size. With no hill in our yard, we created a sledding ramp by packing down snow on the steps off our deck. It worked pretty well until Brennan discovered that coming face-first off the sled at the bottom was just not a fun experience. That ended our sledding expedition for the day with the thought that we'll try again tomorrow.


Another great way to spend the day: baking! This pregnant mama has definitely been wanting some chocolate, so a great way to satisfy the craving was by baking some Cowboy Cookies. Yum!

New Space

Our office is now a desk (gotta love IKEA!) in the corner of our living room. It's an adjustment for John to go from a large, spread-out desk area with lots of storage to a much smaller desk with much less room for storing items. It was a really good excuse to purge! On the other hand, I really love our new space. The one downside is that things are now much more accessible for little hands (and feet) to push buttons that couldn't be reached before. Next up, completing the transformation in the baby's room!

Learning to Trust

We are definitely in a phase of life where we are learning to trust God more and more. With John being unemployed and me working only part-time, we are relying on Him for His provision. We've watched Him provide in the past during times of unemployment and He's proven Himself faithful. We have every reason to believe that He'll prove faithful again, even if it's in ways we don't necessarily expect.

Through this time thus far, we've already experienced many blessings.
1. We are part of a wonderful church that has surrounded us with support, prayers, job recommendations, and even meals.
2. Brennan and I are currently on Medicaid for insurance and we have discovered the benefits to be absolutely outstanding.
3. With John being home, we have been able to start having family devotions at night. It's such a wonderful thing to get to read God's word with Brennan and then pray together as a family. At first, he didn't know what to think of it, but now he holds his hands out to us so we can all hold hands while we pray. It's a precious time!
4. The support of our family and friends has been incredible!
5. John being home has also meant that we've been able to start getting the baby's room ready. We've dismantled the office that had been residing in our third bedroom and relocated it to a much smaller desk in a corner of our living room. That's freed up the bedroom to actually become a bedroom for the baby. His room is starting to come together! (We'll post pictures of the transformation soon)

We finally received word today that John's account through the Virginia Employment Commission has been released from a hold, so we should be receiving all the back pay from the last six or seven weeks in the next couple of days. God has provided a way for us financially through these last weeks, but just when things were starting to look pretty bleak, He's provided again. While definitely not out of the woods, we are watching for more ways that He'll show up in our current circumstances.

And while the path of unemployment is definitely not one we would have chosen (especially with a new baby on the way), I've remarked to John on a few occasions that I really wouldn't change a thing. Yes, the financial pressure is great. But, we get a lot more family time and John is far less stressed being unemployed than he ever was being employed. Truth be told, I love having my husband home in the evenings again!

So, for now, we're going to sit back and enjoy the ride--even the low points. Because we know that in the end, God has something good for our family on the other side.

Construction

We are in the process of doing some serious rearranging of things in our house--starting with assembling a new desk, courtesy of IKEA. John got a little help from Brennan in the process (all while watching the much anticipated Vikings game). More to come on our rearranging adventure!

Snow Day Festival

We attended the Snow Day Festival at the Children's Museum this morning. Brennan got to play and check out all the fun activities the museum has to offer. We attended a story time, with stories told by the Snow Queen. Then Brennan got to decorate a gingerbread man cookie (with a little help from Dad). It was a great way to spend a morning!

If he had his way, he'd never leave the water play area!

Cookie decorating time! He sure enjoyed adding sprinkles, marshmallows, and candy corn to his gingerbread man.

New Year's Reading Resolution

At Naomi's prompting I've decided that my New Year's resolution is to read at least one book a month. I tend to do most of my reading in shorter chunks ... online articles, newspapers, magazines, the back of the cereal box -- so this'll be a challenge. The first challenge however, is narrowing down my list. It turns out there are a lot of books I want to read. Here are the candidates (some of which I've started but never finished):

God on Mute -- Pete Greig
The Teammates -- David Halberstam
Now I Can Die in Peace -- Bill Simmons
What's He So Angry About? -- David Stoop
Irresistable Revolution -- Shane Claiborne
Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God -- J.I. Packer
The Lost Symbol -- Dan Brown
Please Understand Me II -- David Keirsey
Shepherding a Child's Heart -- Ted Tripp
Treasuring God in our Traditions -- Noel Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals -- John Piper
Let the Nations Be Glad -- John Piper
Every Man's Battle -- Steven Arterburn
Wild At Heart -- John Ethridge
Why We're Not Emergent -- Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck
Blue Like Jazz -- Donald Miller
Velvet Elvis -- Rob Bell
Understanding Four Views on Baptism --ed. by John Armstrong
Notes From a Small Island -- Bill Bryson

And four I've read already but want to read again:
The Silence of Adam -- Larry Crabb
The Way of the Heart -- Henri Nouwen
Ruthless Trust -- Brennan Manning
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire -- Jim Cymbala