Friday, October 10, 2008

"Years" (Thanks Rachel)

Saw this as a post in Instantly Mama's blog and thought it was a neat idea.

20 years ago- I was 11 and loving life in Stafford, VA. We lived in a great neighborhood and I was surrounded by lots of friends! (Still love all of you Locklears Landing kids!) My family had recently started attending Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, and I loved all of the fun activities offered there. I was in the 6th grade at AG Wright Middle School and had a good time switching between 2 teachers for the first time. Life was uncomplicated and exciting at the same time!

10 years ago- I was 21 and not really living the life that a follower of Christ should. I put myself through undue heartache and added way more drama to my life than was necessary. There was one point of light in that dark time of my life. I met my Trey. It's funny how God looks out for you even when you're running from Him. I won't say that it was an easy time or that I am proud of how I chose to live during those years, but I learned so much about God's love and redeeming grace.

5 years ago- I was 26 and a new mama. After Trey and I married, we wanted a child right away. We did get pregnant almost immediately, but our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. God was good, though, and Cassandra Nicole joined our family in 2003. I was learning all about late night feedings, diaper changes, spit up, breast feeding, and playing dress up with the most beautiful little girl in the world. I was blessed with the opportunity to stay home with Cass until she was 16 months old and I truly enjoyed watching her grow and learn during that time.

1 year ago- I was 30 and facing an eminent move back to TX. Trey had already headed down to DFW to search for a job and find us a church home. I remained in VA to work and take care of the kiddos. It was hard to be away from him, but it was also a special time to begin the process of saying goodbye to family, friends, and FALL! Trey came back for us in mid-November of last year and our family moved to Mansfield right after Thanksgiving. We began attending 1st Baptist Mansfield almost immediately. We have since joined the church and have been so blessed with new friends and an awesome church family.

Yesterday- I did the mom thing. Since moving to TX, I am a stay at home mommy again. Yesterday, I took Cass to school, did a bit of laundry, dusted, vacuumed, had tea with my mother-in-law, and cooked dinner. I also started this blogging thing. I doled out kisses and hugs to my kids and hubby and tried to remember through the hum-drum of everyday life how very blessed I am.

Today- I am excited that it is Friday and the weekend is almost here. I look forward to Trey having a few days off and getting to spend time together as a family. I think I might actually try to put a dent in the ironing that needs to be done and maybe I'll take a walk with my boys.

Tomorrow- I'll spend the day with Trey and the kids. I don't have any definite plans. Maybe we'll bake cookies, or go shopping, or head to the park. Whatever the case, I plan for us to enjoy our Saturday and be thankful for one another.

2 comments:

Jill Brisken said...

I like this idea! I'll have to remember it for my blog sometime when I have more energy to remember all that history! :-)

Jill Brisken said...

Oh, and I forgot to answer your question on the comment you left on my blog . . . I ended up calling the county service to have Caleb evaluated after speaking with another fellow soccer mom from Ethan's soccer team. Her son just turned 3, and she was telling me how speech therapy had really helped him. I found out that all the things I had been watching Caleb for and was a little concerned about were similar to her son's and he qualified, so I got him checked out. Caleb has always been a loud/babbling child, but at his 18 month appointment, they said he was supposed to be saying 7 - 20 words, and at that time, we had a hard time coming up with barely 7. But our doctor said as long as we were seeing improvement of him attaining new words, he wasn't concerned. But although he was learning new words, he wasn't pronouncing everything right . . .like he would leave out the ending consonants to things and only say one syllable of two syllable words, and he's still not saying two word sentences. Before the evaluation, I did count all the words I knew he could say and it is now around 50 words . . . but probably only half of them would be recognizable to a stranger. So - sorry for such a long post, but these were the reasons I was having some concerns. It also was very apparent because my mom watches another little boy who is the exact same age as Caleb and he is speaking in full sentences, so the difference between them was very apparent! Are you having any questions about your boys?? Sorry again for such a long comment on your blog! :-)