Change and a God-given new Perspective

All this travelling, our impending move, and the thought of more travelling has gotten to me. I may have even lost it right before one trip over a spilt bottle of breast milk. I may have even declared "that's it!" in front of the rest of my family, told my husband he could forget about me on the trip, and stormed off upstairs. It may have taken me about an hour to get it completely out of my system; during that time I may have cleaned the house like a nesting mother, trying to focus on the task at hand versus my forlorn-looking husband and my inescapable future. I may have been completely irrational at the time, having become completely exhausted spiritually and emotionally (he recognized the exhaustion, asking if the baby had been up all night) from it all. And I may have blamed it on my mother-in-law, whom, I told my husband, made me realize I was not invincible when she told both him and I that all women have a breaking point, and need their emotional downtime so they don't snap.

I snapped.

And it was a bit ugly.

I've never handled change well. I didn't want to get married when I did. Never wanted to move from home. Have always enjoyed the status quo. But as I pursue my relationship with God through marriage, I told my husband that I can't remember having "downtime" for more then a few hours lately (which is why he wants to drag me to Hawaii with him while he attends a conference) , nor have I ever felt "settled down" and a sense of permanency, as, counting moves performed for a month or more, we will have picked up and moved 12x when we head to North Carolina in July (6x without the month long moves)... which I guess is good in a sense as it reminds me that this world is not our eternal home. It also makes me fearful for the future-- because we've been everywhere and in-between;now that hospitals and jobs are coming knocking on our door, it makes me nervous to be confident in God's will as we will be entering the final career stage and all our travelling will be done.

And it's "permanent".

Yes, I don't know what I want, can you tell? :)


And I love how God knows what I need to hear, and sometimes when the voices in my head are so loud that I can't hear His whisper, He gives me a visual. And this was the devotional in my email on Wednesday...

(it's a p31 devotional by Lynn Cowell entitled "Getting Past the Pain of Change")

"Through the breakups and broken hearts, God was moving me to a new place where He could reveal a side of Him I hadn't experienced....

He wanted to reposition me so I would know True Love.

Jesus had to change my position to change my perspective.

It seems God often needs to change someone's position so they can see things in a fresh way. In today's key verse (Matthew 17:1-2), Jesus had more to show three of the disciples, so He led them up a high mountain by themselves. A place away from others. A place not easily accessible. But a place where He would change their perspective. Here, before their very eyes Jesus' face shone like the sun, and they heard God speak: "This is my Son" (Matthew 17:5a, NIV).

When the disciples had a change in their position, they experienced a change in their perspective on who Jesus was. It's possible their self-perspective changed as well.

The breakup I went through as a young woman wasn't the only time God changed my position to change my perspective. Moves, job changes, places I have held in people's lives and people's hearts ... my position is constantly changing. Each change brings another opportunity for God to change my perspective. Like the disciples, I can see Him in new ways I haven't seen Him before: my Provider, my Healer, my True Love.

Can you see an area where your position is changing? It may be in your responsibilities as a mom, a new job, at home or in your calling. In this new place, your loving Father wants to show you His perspective of who He is and what He wants to do in you and through you. Open your heart past the pain of change and ask God to change your perspective to see Him in this new place."

 

 

So thankful for this devotion as we head off this morning to go house-hunting this weekend in North Carolina :)

A Blue Angel Birthday

We returned home Monday night. I was looking forward to relaxing Tuesday, laundry and grocery shopping for necessities Wednesday and then celebrating Aiden's birthday a day early on Thursday.

Well, my dear husband informed me Monday night as we went to bed that he was on call on Thursday. Remember?

Uh.... nope. Did he tell me that before?!

Either way, it wouldn't be the first on either our lack of communication skills or my forgetfulness. ;)

Suddenly, with church on Wednesday, my Tuesday of relaxing turned into the only night we could celebrate. Just as with Liam, we wanted to have one other family there to make it special for him. He wanted Mark and Bev, but they were gone on their anniversary, so a close second would be... the Harmons! He was pretty specific with the type of cake he wanted, but didn't care so much for dinner. But thankfully after I went through 10 meal plans trying to figure out what I could make without a trip to the grocery store, he made it easy for me by telling me he wanted... eggs. And hotdogs.

Gotta love the kid combinations :)

(Callum is on the floor in a bumbo by Joel. Ben was at work and couldn't make it until after dinner)

Aiden had been wanting a blue angel cake for quite a while. He'd mention it every once in a while, and it became slightly more repetitive after Liam's monster cupcakes, when Liam would ask Aiden what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday.

Yikes. What am I doing to myself?!?! Great to know my children think I'm some type of creatively artistic Mommy. I wish I had as much confidence in myself ;)

I'd finally been becoming slightly more confident in drawing fighter planes, but that was with pencil and paper. I didn't feel as confident in my cake decorating skills. So I went to the internet to find a simple outline of one.

Tada!!

Feeling slightly more confident I set about to make the cake. Thinking about the blue/yellow combination had me craving lemon, and I thought lemon and blueberry would make a fine cake/frosting combination. So he didn't get a choice. :)    I've never made it sheet cake size and wanted it thick enough that it wouldn't break apart, so I just made it in a 9x13 pan and frosted it. And then showed Aiden...

Me: "Aiden, what kind of cake did you want Mommy to make?"

Aiden: "A blue angel airplane cake!"

Me: " Look Aiden! Do you like your blue angel cake?"

Aiden: {pausing, furrowing his eyebrows, pausing some more... then smiling slightly} "Yeah!"

hahaha :)

With an imagination like that, I knew that even with the coloring not right, and being too lazy to smooth out the frosting and fully cover the wing tips with sprinkles, we'd be ok ;)



Really though, notice the cake doesn't have the blueberry marbling? I forgot to add it. Sigh. And then I got a bit nervous, knowing that blueberries can stain purple, not blue, and didn't know how well that would work in the icing. And since I had already ate all my dried blueberries, well... we just opted for food coloring. Double sigh. But I didn't get the color right, since I was not willing to add in a ton of dye.

If I had been smart, I would have blown up the picture, cut it out, and used that as a stencil. But I wasn't. I just free-handed it, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I halved some leftover cake to make the cockpit, but after frosting it, I think I could have even cut that in have. Not sure how it would have frosted though.

 The definition was definitely better pre-frosting. Thankfully the grid marks from the cooling rack helped make it more symmetrical.

 After crumb coating a white layer and then adding the blue layer. I missed some spots :)

 Then added yellow sprinkles. I probably would have brushed off the excess, but I didn't have a cake board and improvised with a lego board covered with plastic wrap, since my cutting board was being used. The boys were excited though, because they thought it meant the airplane was flying over the ground.

 I crumb coated and put grey sprinkles on the cockpit separate, before adding it back.

 Then added on tail fins (made of paper covered cardboard). I thought about covering it with frosting for homogeneity purposes. But it seemed like too much effort. Plus I didn't want to fiddle with drawing the three with yellow frosting or being too careful with sprinkles.

 I had just enough white to add the jet stream. The boys were delighted. Then after looking at my inspiration, I saw that it although it looked like they had two engines, it only had one stream coming from the back, so I smudged it together. :)

 He was suuuuuuuper excited to see the real thing :)

 We didn't know where to stick the candles. I thought about missiles, but the three would make it uneven. And I was worried about the plastic. But Joel thought it'd be fun to have it be the fire coming out of the back (and Liam agreed, as he was disappointed I didn't have red and yellow sprinkles back there). Aiden on the other hand was a little bit unsure of the fire, so he was more then happy to blow them out!

 My inspiration I was talking about?? Right there... :)

The next day we opened up the cards...

 (this was taken after I forgot what kind of cards my family usually sends-- they were still smiling and laughing 5 minutes later...)

And presents...

 His face lit up in a smile as soon as he caught a glimpse of the "blue angel" lego set from Auntie Katie

 ... and digger construction magnets from Nana and Papa

 You like that reoccurring face on my boys?! :)

 Auntie Katie's birthday present to Liam was a bit late, but nevertheless exciting!

(notice how he carried it around with him the rest of the day...)

And for those that want the statistics...

Height:
 36 inches

Weight:
29.4 lbs

Favorite(s....) Foods:
Fruit and frozen waffles. Yes, frozen. If he's still eating it when it thaws, then he will have it toasted.

Favorite Treat:
pistachios

Favorite Book:
Hogwash, by Karma Wilson

Favorite Old Testament Story:
Noah's Ark

Favorite New Testament Story:
Jesus Calming the Storm

Favorite(s...) Songs:
Jesus Loves Me
ABC
I'll Fly Away (He thinks it has to do with airplanes...)

Favorite Place(s...) to Go:
Trader Joe's.
The Harmon's

Favorite Thing to Do:
Pick on his brothers... errr... I mean...
Riding his tricycle and smelling and picking dandelions for Mommy. :)

Things he does NOT like:
Storms
Bugs.

3 Things Aiden likes to do with Daddy:
1. See the blue angels
2. Go get "ice cream"
3. Play the "Froggie" game (a board game given to him by our neighbor)

3 Things Aiden likes to do with Mommy:
1. Help make food and do laundry
2. Puzzles
3. Build train tracks

Things he likes to do with his brothers... :
Play trains and airplanes. Build forts. Legos and Duplos.

When he grows up, Aiden wants to be a...
Pilot.

Travels, Weekend 3 (Lafayette Interview)

**Yes, yes, You may have realized I haven't even posted pictures from our first two weeks worth of traveling. I just haven't had time. But I will try to do it before we head off once again :) **

After a three day break, we headed off Thursday afternoon down to West Lafayette, Indiana. Our main reason was for Joel's first interview opportunity at IU Arnett in Lafayette on Friday. Liam's main reason... to stay with his cousin, Trae. While there, we also enjoyed spending lots of time with Paul and Miranda, were able to attend Matt and Katie's wedding, and spent an evening at Joel's parents (after the Bahler get-together was cancelled).

We should find out whether they want to pursue a contract within the few days or so, but it was nice getting to meet the surgical team (and their wives) for a lovely evening at Bistro 501, a quaint little restaurant with a French country feel and yummy food! I also was taken on a "community tour", though I felt it to be a bit redundant, as all through our marriage, my Purdue-loving husband has taken me on tours trying to warm me over to his beloved college town.

He's still trying. :)

We began the trip at Bruno's. Apparently, once upon a time, it used to be the hangout of the PYG. Miranda was surprised that I had never had Bruno dough, and my husband raved about peanut butter pizza. So we met them there for dinner Thursday evening. Miranda's sister and her family came too. The boys enjoyed watching the chefs toss the pies in the air as we walked through the front door. I love that when we arrived, the waitress said, "oh, you must be with the group with all the kids!" ... there were only 4 other kids there-- I hate to see what people think when the whole family gets together! ... By the way, both the dough and the pb pizza (with chocolate chips) were super good!

And apparently this is what arrived that evening at P & M's place. The welcome basket was filled with all kinds of local goodies... salsa, garlic pretzels, spiced nuts, fudge, chocolate and caramel corn (and a little red cardinal that later made it's own surprise when we thought a bird had somehow gotten into the house)!

The boys loved their time at Uncle Paul and Aunt Miranda's. It felt like a vacation (even with the "teeth scratching" that took place) for us, and our hosts were gracious enough to put up with a chaotic house for almost a week, even watching our children for the day/evening on Friday!

 

It was fun to be away, but my goodness, it feels so nice to be back home :)