A Purposeful Peek

For Charlotte's first birthday, we wanted to have a small local gathering of family and close friends to help celebrate this milestone. I wrote previously about the pressures of our society's birthday party expectations , and we wanted to keep it simple and focused on the main event - celebrating our daughter's first year of life! I love a good theme party [see our March Maternity Madness gender reveal party], and so we wanted a theme that reflected our daughter's personality traits - fun, passionate, brave, and adventurous.  A frilly, pink, super-girly princess party simply wouldn't do for this bold little lady.  The theme we came up with?  "The Wild ONE"! We planned a "Jungle Brunch" on a Saturday morning so that we wouldn't interfere too much with nap schedules for our smallest guests and our little lady of honor. Also, by having an early celebration, it left the weekend wide open for resting and celebrating as a family. ...

Charlotte Ann, Happy ONE Year Birthday!!! We want to shout with joy for not only surviving the notoriously sleep-deprived, first-time-parenting learning curve of a year, but for absolutely  thriving in what has been the most wonderful season of our lives! You have brought more joy and laughter to this family than we ever knew possible, and we are continually amazed by your sweet and adventurous little personality. Your name means "freedom" and you carry it well. You radiate a joyful energy and a passionate strong will. You love people, and you communicate well.  We know that these traits will serve you tremendously throughout your lifetime, and we truly believe that you will be a world changer! For the record... You weigh exactly 20 lbs and are 30 inches long. You survived the first year with only 2 stomach viruses and Hand Foot and Mouth Syndrome (virus). You are taking independent steps but still prefer speed-crawling [monkey-style, on your hands and feet, with ...

Today was a normal Tuesday. It was just an ordinary day, much like any other. But like any other day, the most mundane circumstances can bring extraordinary revelation...if you're looking for them. My alarm went off at 5am, but somehow I didn't drag myself out of bed until almost an hour later.  By the time I got on the interstate heading for work, traffic was bumper to bumper, and it was clear that my normal 25 minute commute would be much, much longer.  I muttered under my breath, chiding myself for oversleeping.  I also lamented over the fact that I missed the morning commute I used to share with my husband, before he started working from home.  Then, the phone rang, and it was him. He was calling to read to me the last chapter of a book we'd been using as our morning devotion: "You and Me Forever" - a thought-provoking book about marriage in light of eternity. Suddenly, I was thankful for the extra long drive, since it gave us just enough time to finish the ...