Life.

My sweet girl helping me by bringing down the laundry from upstairs.  She is really starting to act "old".  I know this may seem kinda hilarious to those of you with older kids.  That I would refer to my 4 year old as being "old".  But since she's the first born, I haven't had to watch this transition before from toddler to child.  She wants to know the ins and outs of everything.  She has such a strong opinion of what she wants.  She loves to try and get a rise out of me by saying something she knows is silly.  Every once in awhile she'll look at me the right way and I'll catch a glimpse of that baby face and I'll wonder where my baby went.  I wouldn't trade one second of this time with her though getting "old". ;)

As for the rest of life..

We're just going with the flow these days.  We've had a ton of ups and downs.  Today I just made up my mind that "ups and downs" are just going to be a way of life for us, I suppose!  We have some big hopes for this year.  We "hope" that this year we will make more family time away from the home.  We haven't been good about taking vacations just the four of us.  We usually spend our extra time visiting family.  This year we "hope" to take some time just the four of us.  We "hope" that this year our family will grow  with another baby.  We "hope" that Randy will one day get a full time job leading worship.  We can go on and on with desires of our heart, but I'm thankful we have more then just "hopes and dreams". 

This morning as I was working on a lesson from my ladies Bible study at church, I was reading this verse that I have probably read a gazillion times:

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.   

And even though I have read it often, it never gets old.  We can be sad about a situation, but yet joyful because we know that in the end it is going to work out for our benefit and God's glory.  My absolute favorite part of it is the end.  That we will be "mature and complete, not lacking anything."  I can't imagine how many trials, how many lessons-learned-the-hard-way it must take to finally be complete and lacking nothing, but I'm thankful that God is chiseling away at me little by little!