Thankful for the Lord's Provisin Part VI

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts.  However, don't let my unfaithfulness deceive you into thinking the Lord has been absent.  True to his nature, he's proven more faithful than ever.

First - a BIG praise!  Hudson has health insurance.  We applied for him to have health insurance a few weeks after his birth and experienced no troubles.  I'm so thankful for a healthy baby.  So even though I'm still uninsurable (sigh) sweet baby isn't and I can't tell you what a comfort and peace that gives to know that if he's sick he can go to the doc with little concern financially.

Second - another BIG praise!  When Hudson was approved for health insurance, it never occured to me that it would be retroactive to cover some of the costs of his birth.  Apparently that's how it works with babies so long as you get them covered within the first 30 days of life outside the womb.  So our 27,000 some-odd dollar medical debt has been reduced by $2,900.  That was "Hudson's" part of the hospital bill for our three day stay after delivery.  Not a huge reduction; it's just over 10% but we'll definitely take it and are grateful for it.  Sadly I wish someone had told me to call my OB before 4 months was up that way they could have billed his circumcision fee because apparently now they can't - serious bummer.  But the Lord will provide.

Third - we're thankful for the Lord's provision of friends with 2 year old and 4 year old boys.  Why you ask?  Because they give super, awesome, cute hand-me-down clothes.  Check out this adorable (and so generous) stack of clothes.

It's all 18 and 24 month stuff so Hudson won't be able to wear it for a while, but Lord willing, he will get to wear them.  So when he gets that big, we'll be excited to share with him how these are A and E's clothes.  I'm sure he'll think A & E are super cool being older and wiser so we're hoping he'll love wearing their clothes.

These may all seem like small things and for the most part they are.  No, God has yet to provide a better job for James.  No, God has yet to cause the hospital to take pity on us and dramatically reduce our big debt.  No, God has yet to make me "insurable."  There are a lot of things God has yet to do and perhaps, he will never do.  But God has done so much - both big and small.  So much that I pray everyday that I don't take any of it for granted.  Simple, small things that are easily overlooked in my sin of self-pity, selfishness, and comparison to/envy of others.  But despite my sin, God continues to show himself faithful to us in all things.

 

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I got you singing again, don't I?  :)

This past week has been busy with beginning the season of Advent.  Having Hudson has made this Christmas seems all the more fun.  I love that he's experiencing everything for the first time, even though he'll not remember a moment of it. 

First, we put up our Christmas Tree.  I avoid shopping at all, especially Black Friday shopping so we spent the day rearranging the living room (multiple times) and putting out all the decorations. 

 

Hudson is a serious fan of the Christmas Tree as you can see.  I am having a feeling that next year when he'll be 18 months and most likely walking everywhere that we'll have to do some serious baby-proofing of the tree.  Or as Mrs. B says "Don't baby-proof the house, house-proof the baby!"

 

Next, Hudson and I went to our church's Angel Breakfast.  It's a special event put on by the preschool and children departments.  Youth dress up like angels, to represent the angels who announced Jesus' birth.  Our pastor, Bro. Tom reads the Christmas story to all the kids (and parents).  Plus the deacons cook and serve an amazing breakfast.

 

 

Hudson pretending to like the highchair.  This lasted about 2 minutes before he started fussing.

My shameless spread o'food.



"You better watch yourself son" - my exact words

Wondering what's going on.

Bro. Tom called all the kiddos over.

Waiting patiently for the Christmas story to begin.

Funniest thing I saw while Bro. Tom read.
I'm assuming this was a brother/sister duo.
 

Sweet Mrs. Audrey.

 

The first Sunday of Advent was our second annual Sunday School Christmas Party.  We hosted it at our house, because you know, it's always a party at our house.

We made salt-dough ornaments with the kids.

 

 

Hudson and Mr. Rick!

Sweet Friends

 

3/4 of Sweet Friends' kids.
I LOVE how Little A is smiling at his big sister.

T and G having serious conversations.

Maryann and I - she's my "oldest" (not in age) Louisville friend.
And could she be any more gorgeous?

 

That evening after our Sunday School party, we headed to church for the annual Hanging of the Greens service.  After the many songs, the symbols of Christmas being explained, and adorable kids walking in with flowers, the church as a family lines up and decorates the "Family Christmas Tree."  This year, we made an ornamen to represent our family.

A snowman made of our three thumbprints.
James on the bottom, me in the middle and Hudson on top.
Have you ever tried to get a 6 month old's thumbprint? Not easy.
We had no orange marker so our snowman is nose-less.

The back.

Other random pictures from the evening, because I sneak and take pictures at church.  Pretty sure that's sinful.



Hudson with Mrs. S.  She is by far the godliest woman I know.
Hudson would do well to marry a woman like her one day. :)
 

All this fun and it's only the beginning of the Christmas Season.  Can't wait to see what the next 3 weeks hold.

Getting to Know You

...getting to know all about you.  Are you singing yet, or am I the only musical geek?

Every year I taught school one of my main prayers has been to get to know the students.  Yes, I want to teach them well and have them learn but I also need to know them - really know them well.  I need to know who needs to be warned of an upcoming fire drill to avoid unncessary anxiety.  I need to know who I can push a little harder to accomplish more and who I can't push because they'd cave.  I need to know who I can lovingly tease and who is too sensitive.  I want to know their likes, interests, and concerns to appropriately talk with and pray for them.  As faithful as ever, the Lord has always been kind to answer this prayer even last year when I had the biggest class ever.  This has been my prayer for being Hudson's Mama as well.

Since today is Hudson's 6 month birthday (how is he this old already?), I thought I'd share some of what I've discovered about his personality.

He is laid back.  I hoped and prayed for a mellow baby.  I'm fairly laid back and in the past have handled high-maintenance friends/students well (though I find it exhausting) but really hoped for a laid back baby.  My suspicions have been confirmed by other people - his pediatrician, photographers, friends - all people who have experience with babies and say Hudson is easy going. 

He has a budding temper.  I expected this.  James has a temper and if I'm honest, I do too - mine's just internal festering so it often goes unnoticed.  The other day Hudson rolled over onto his belly and after a few minutes started fussing because he didn't want to be on his belly.  I refuse to always roll him back over as he needs to solve his own problems (Mean Mama, I know).  He fussed and whined for a few minutes and smacked the tar out of his toy near him.  It could have been an accident, but he was looking pretty frustrated so I turned him over.  I'm thankful that for now his temper appears only every once in a while, but I know this will require much prayer and grace.

He is an introvert.  One on one, Hudson will babble all day long.  But when in a group setting, he's amazingly quiet.  Even in utero, I would notice that when I went outside for recess with the students he'd get really quiet and stop moving around.  I think he was just listening to all the screaming, loud kids playing.  Perhaps he's a people watcher/listener. 

He likes compliments.  Silly boy.  The other day I had a coupon for a free photo package so off to Sears we went.  The photographer tried minutes on end to get him to smile but nothing until she said, "Oooh Handsome Boy!" Bingo! A huge grin appeared and reappeared every time she flattered him.  Good thing he's so cute and compliments are easy.

He is a lovey-dovey.  He's becoming quite the snuggle-bug.  Yesterday he was even giving kisses.  Really, it was more like tasting my face, but I like to think of them as kisses.  Big, wet, tongue out, slobbery kisses.  On Thanksgiving Aunt M was holding him and suddenly he leaned over, wrapped him arms around Uncle J's arm and snuggled his head close.  It was simply adorable.

He is serious about his "work."  We called Hudson's time in his Exersaucer his "work" because he gets so serious about his play in that thing.  He furrows his little brow and concentrates intently on whatever he's doing.  Yes, he'll smile and giggle but usually when you talk to him about what he's doing.  Otherwise it's 100% concentration.  Perhaps this means he'll have a good work ethic one day?

I'm so thankful to the Lord for these past 6 months and so look forward to the days, weeks, months, and years ahead to get to know our little son even better.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hudson was blessed to experience TWO First Thanksgivings.

It would have been three, had we stayed for Thanksgiving after church last Sunday but somebody was g-r-u-m-p-y from a way-too-stimulating morning in the church nursery so we slid out to come home and let him rest.

On Thursday evening, we hung out with the P, J, J, and W families at the church gym.  Technically this was Hudson's second thanksgiving with these families but last year he was just a wee apple-sized babe in my womb.  Some how I only got one picture the whole night.  Sigh.  But here it is, Hudson and Uncle Jay.

 

Friday, we hung out with the G family.  Baby R (who is 6 weeks older than H) was there and much fun was had watching the babies play with each other.

 

H wasn't quite sure about R at first.



Add caption

Much fun was had in the pack n play. 
Many tears were shed in the pack n play over one blue trumpet.

R can crawl, H cannot.
R used this new ability to try to take H's ball.
H was having none of it.
 

 

Turkey Onesie DIY Tutorial

Thanksgiving day came with major disappointment,  Hudson's little "My 1st Thanksgiving" onesie that Melissa #1 gave him before he was born was much too little. Lilttle guy never even got to wear it; bummer.

Thankfully I was feeling crafty and with some pinterest inspiration I made this:

 

Here's how:

 

1) Find a onesie you don't mind using.  I forgot to take a "before" picture, but it was a cute long-sleeve onesie with a froggie on it.

 

2) Get some material for the turkey & feathers.  I used plaid because it's "manly."  I have no less than TWO sewing machines, but can't use them that well so I hand-stitched it using embroidery thread.  It took two skeens (I have no idea what to call embroidery thread packets) - I used one black and one white.

 

3)  I drew a turkey and feather pattern on pages from an old magazine, then pinned them to the fabric and cut them out.

 

4)  Then I laid them out on the onesie, then pinned them.

 

5)  Now it's time to sew.  I used a "zig zag" stitch as seen below.

 

 

6)  When finished, find a cute baby to model DIY onesie.

Thankfully I have the cutest baby ever who readily obliged to be my baby model.

7)  I drew turkey eyes & beak with a sharpie mostly because it took me 2 hours to get this done and I lost steam and didn't have energy to do anything else.  You could stitch on buttons for the eyes and fabric for the beak and that would be terribly adorable.

8)  I hand-stitched little turkey legs, but they aren't so great - haha.  Oh well, practice makes perfect.

Hudson enjoyed wearing his handmade turkey onesie on Thanksgiving and now it's been washed, dried, and put away in a keepsake box.

15 Years

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of my Mom's passing.  It's weird that in just three years I will have spent half of my life without her. 

This anniversary is different almost every year.  Certain ones stick out in my memory for different reasons, usually because of their difficulty.  1998 was the first anniversary.  2001 was hard because everyone was still reeling from the September 11th attacks.  2007 was emotional because I was pretty certain James and I would get engaged soon and I was missing having a Mama to talk to about all the upcoming planning.  Last year was super emotional because I was pregnant.  Not only was I hormonal (haha) but like 2007, it was a momentous year and I was really missing my Mama - envious of those pregnant mamas who had a mama to talk to.  This year?  I'm praying it won't be so bad.  I think having Hudson will be a good distraction; then again being a mama now may make the void all the more prevalent.  Either way, God is good and was faithful to let me have my sweet Mom for 18 years. 

Things I remember about my Mom:

1) She LOVED my Daddy.  I never heard her say one negative thing about my Daddy.  Not that he was perfect, but she chose only to lift him up in my presence.  But Mom loved Daddy not only in word, but also in deed.  Almost everyday my Mom would help my Daddy put his shoes on in the morning and take them off in the evening.  My Dad is a big guy (6'3" and about 300#) and worked construction so he was often tired and had difficulty bending over to tie/untie his work shoes.  Even in my Mom's last years when she had lost a finger or two and was wheelchair bound (stupid diabetes) she'd wheel over and help Daddy with his shoes.  Some may view that as subservient, but she didn't - she was glad to serve him this way and it's a vivid memory I have of their marriage.

2)  She was super good with money.  Like crazy good at saving, bargain shopping, etc..  She took the responsibility for providing for her family and managing the house in this way very seriously.  Daddy always likes to tell the story of how Mama paid for a track of land they purchased with tens and twentys out of a mason jar - it was a couple grand.  (Yes, a mason jar - remember, I'm from the country and that's how we roll).  She was frugal, but not cheap and always generous with gifts to others.

3)  She was quite talented.  She was a great baker of sweets (not a good thing when you're diabetic). I have many memories of her baking scrumptous, yummy desserts as a kid.  Almost always from scratch, by the way.  She was such a good cook (not just a baker) and I'm sad I wasn't interested in learning from her when I was a teen.  She could also sew and made almost all of my clothes until I hit 3rd grade, at which point I wanted "store bought" clothes because they were cooler.  I think that's the greatest tragedy of losing a parents as a teen - I was simply too self-absorbed and ornery as a teen to care about learning from her. 

I have a ton of family pictures but sadly Mom's not in many.  I guess she was the one taking the pictures :)  But enjoy these pictures I did find of my mama - Paulette Louise Gibbons Proctor (1/26/1946 - 11/20/1997)

My mom and her mom, Mawmaw Gibbons.

My mom with her Grandparents Hill.

Circa 3rd grade - wasn't she a cutie?

Circa 5th grade.

Circa 6th grade.

The whole Gibbons family - Mom (front) my uncle Benjamin (behind Mom)
Pawpaw Gibbons and Mawmaw Gibbons in the back.

I'm guessing early high school?  Check out those cat-eye glasses.

 

Not the best quality since it's a picture of a picture; but this is by far my
favorite picture of Mom and me - so happy!

 

The back of this photo says, "Melissa took this" in my little kid handwriting - haha.

 

 

I had some pictures of Mom from her last years, but she was sick then and those pictures make my heart sad so I'll stop with this one above.  This is how I remember her when I think of her - smiling and happy.