30 for 30: 5-10

Today I'm just posting recent pictures and continuing the 30 for 30 series along the way! I know this will be rather random, but that's just kind of how it goes around here sometimes!

This has become a morning ritual. T puts her head down so E will give her a head massage. It's all fun and games until E pulls her hair! It's just too tempting, I guess?

 5. A sense of humor makes everything better! Seeing the silly side of things has helped get me through many an odd situation in life. And that's all I'll say about that.

One of the girls' favorite pastimes is mixing and matching and rearranging all their Little People in their various vehicles. You never know what combo you'll see, but this particular time it looks like poor Eric is driving a pink SUV around... 

... with a baby in the back!

Congrats to Ariel and Eric, I guess?

  6. Marriage and kids (while not for everyone, of course) are nothing to be afraid of. Sure, they're enormous commitments, but when you're with a good match for you, and when your relationship is founded on Christ, there really is nothing to fear. Looking back on it, now that I'm a mom, I can't believe how very, very, VERY insistent I was on waiting for a long time after marriage to have kids. Of course, that changed over time, and we caught the baby bug. (Right when the prospect of a baby was seeming less and less frightening, I happened to catch a radio interview with Steve and Candice Watters, which pretty much helped me overcome the last of my fears. Ironically, Steve would eventually become my boss at my job in the communications department at SBTS and the one to whom I would turn in my resignation when I was getting close to having the girls!) So Chris and I were married a little over three years before T and E came along, and now I'm very glad we didn't put it off any longer!

However, pregnancy/childbirth is another story altogether. Be afraid, be very afraid!! ;)

I have been on some kind of a rug binge lately. We threw out the old nursery rug -- actually Chris, who is turning out to be quite the salesman, managed to sell it to someone with much greater cleaning abilities than I have -- and replaced it with this! E was so happy she was doing a little dance here!

The girls think that the rug has moon designs all over it, for some reason. Apparently the fascination with all things lunar continues. They point to the white circles and the crescent-looking parts of the design and say, "It's a moon! It's a moon!"

7. Treat others the way you'd really like to be treated. Of course, this SURE isn't original -- thank you, Matt. 7:12! :)

Tamsie named this elephant Boo (seen here with Evie). I found this out by asking her what her name is ("Tamsie!"), what my name is ("Mommy!") and what this elephant's name is ("Boo!"). Now she will go and bring me Boo on request, so it's apparently official.

8. Live to please God, not others. Stop thinking about yourself so much. No one else is, anyway! It's a dangerous thing to be a people pleaser, and that's something I can easily fall into if I'm not careful. Galatians 1:10 has been a key verse for me here: "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."

And here is T running around while carrying the bear that Evie has named Kiwi. I found out his name the same way, and it has also stuck.

 9. Time is precious, and it goes too quickly. If you realize that a job or relationship or anything you're in is not for you, get out of it as soon as you can. One of the best things I ever did was to quit a job that clearly was not for me and move to Louisville to go to seminary. Also, speaking of time, you make time for what you want to make time for. This applies to God, friendships, everything.

Carissa and Cliff came to hang out Tuesday afternoon! This is kind of what it was like with the three of them the whole time. You should know that T started out in the picture but had vanished by the time camera had flashed.

Non-stop!

By the way, luckily for them, the girls have inherited Chris's ability to tan, as you can really see on Evie here.

These days, if Carissa and I want to have legitimate adult conversations, we talk on the phone ahead of time! Not a lot of heart-to-hearts happen around these three, but the five of us sure do have a blast hanging out! :)

10. Don't overcommit. When you do, you're stealing a blessing from someone else who should be serving in the spot that you're taking up. I've done LOTS of overcommitting since having the girls, and I'm still learning my lesson here! But also, don't undercommit. When you do, you're stealing a blessing from yourself and possibly from others you could have served had you taken on the commitment.

That's all for now! I already have some more pictures for the next post, but I think this one is long enough! :)