How is it already time to sign this face up for preschool? Mama dislike. 

People have been in existence for thousands of years. And for thousands of years they have been living on this same Earth- having babies, raising babies, falling in and out of love, working hard to not only survive but to thrive. And while much of what people have faced over those thousands of years has evolved and changed with the times, there are a lot of core things that have stayed the same. So, isn't it funny that there have been billions before us who have faced much of what we face and yet we still struggle every time we face it? 

I think that's because there are some things that are so much deeper or on such a higher level that man's wisdom cannot overcome it. Give man a problem like how to more safely cross the ocean and he'll build you better boats and eventually an airplane. Give him a problem like staying warm in the winter and cool in the summer and he'll build you heaters and air conditioners. But, give man the problems of hate, anger, loneliness and disease and he'll look back at you feeling helpless, leaving you with only one place to look- up. 

I don't believe that God wants bad things to happen. I don't believe that he wants us to hurt like we all to often do. But we don't live the world that he had envisioned, we live in a fallen world where there is a lot of really bad stuff and I believe in my heart that every time something horrible happens he hurts more than we do- much like when our children are hurt it is harder on us most times than it is on them. 

I'm not sure where this is all coming from except I guess I do. There's just been so much ugliness lately on the news, in the world and it seems to get closer and closer to home, most recently with a good friend learning that her precious 3 year old has cancer. It's all heart-breaking, all of it and every time a piece of news like that arrives I find myself- as I'm sure everyone does- wondering what to do to help, how to make it better and also how to feel better about this world that I have brought my children into. 

For me personally I also search for answers, grasp on to ways to help only to end up feeling more helpless than before and I've done this countless times in my life only to always arrive back at the same answer. That prayer is the only way. Sure there are other things I do- offer words of encouragement, reach out with kind gestures and those are all great things, all needed things. But, nothing can surmount the power of prayer, the power of the only one who can give us hope when things look hopeless, who can provide a way, a cure, an answer when nobody on this earth can. 

Prayer. Lets take comfort in that. 

Resolution Rekindle.

One of my 2013 resolutions is to better prioritize my marriage. Dan and I have a great relationship already, but I know that I let myself make excuses too easily about kids or work or stress or whatever getting in the way of us really putting us above it all. I want to rekindle, if you will. And so we've made the agreement to start out by making sure we have monthly dates and I'm doing my best to plan ahead of time for babysitters and planning the dates themselves so that life doesn't get in the way and prevent us from making the time that we need. 

Here are the dates we currently have lined up for 2013:

January: Bowling 
February: A Hockey Game
March: Take a cooking class together
April: Visit the Creation Museum
May: Cincinnati Reds Game
June: We'll be on a mission trip in Ecuador this month, so lots of quality "date" time. 
July: The Observatory (take 2, last visit wasn't so much a success)
August: TBD- any ideas? 
September: TBD- any ideas? 
October: Dinner at our local winery
November: Dinner at our favorite winery (so, we like wine...)
December: Ice Skating

I guess a lot of my resolutions, including this one, are about not allowing life to be all about the day-to-day. About not allowing the mundane to become the hero of the story. And that applies to marriage as well- especially to marriage I think.  What is that saying that they say, that the best gift you can give your children is to love your husband/wife? I couldn't agree more. 

January: Diving into DIY...

There's something about January, the new year, the snow outside that ignites the DIY wannabe inside of me. It makes me want to tackle every project on my Pinterest boards and every project I've been creating in my mind. Dan and I both get overly excited about projects and so we normally start too many at once, but I guess that's part of the fun?

Here are a few of the projects I want to tackle this month to help get me closer to checking off another 30 by 30 ("completely designing 3 rooms exactly how I want them"). 

I think the little engineer in Jackson would love this latch board. 

Creating something like this custom art for the great room. 

I love these letters from one of my favorite blogs and they would be perfect for the playroom.

Speaking of the playroom, I want to create a reading nook for the babies, maybe one like this or this. 

And I can't forget getting ready for handsome butt's 3rd birthday, he has requested a construction theme.