a wheelbarrow + some worms = a VERY fun day with Daddy

This is why God gave us a Daddy...

I was delighted to pull in the driveway just in time to capture these memories. 

...thankful I did have to participate.  :) 

 

...by the cross are sanctified

"Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified; peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide.'' - In the Cross of Christ I Glory 
John Bowring

 The tears were flowing as we sang this in church Sunday morning. How is it my heart could ache and rejoice at the same time? How is it that there is peace when the answer was "You were not chosen."?  

What at a blessing that after receiving disappointing news about the position at work Josh applied for we were able to spend the afternoon as a family playing and laughing.  The joy of the Lord does abide through ALL times! 

playing "guitar"

 for the record Levi picked his outfit, army man pants & George

And in the midst of the sadness the Lord sends this very exciting opportunity to be "famous" for a day!!  Out of the blue I received a crazy phone call from the local newspaper asking to interview me.  They were doing an article on a new study that has put a "price" on the duties of a homemaker.  They wanted to know Why I chose to stay home?  and What my thoughts on this study were? It's not very often a stay-at-home mom is recognized on the FRONT page of the business section with 2 pictures and a full page article.  Who knew I could be making $96, 261?!? 

Lord, be glorified in us through these situations.  We trust You are making us more like Jesus as we joyfully accept ALL that You give us.

"Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?"

Job 2:10

My Own Little Spot

 It's not very often I have something I get to call my very own. My whole world is shared with my 3 favorite people. What was once the breakfast table is now my very own sewing and crafting nook!

This little set of drawers is my favorite item on the table.  It was Momma's and she asked if I'd like to have it.  Each time I open the drawers I smile as the memories of watching her sew just pop right out...handing and collecting her pins, ironing for her, the smell of the machine as when it gets hot, and the sound of the scissors on the table as she cut out her pattern. 

 

My first project was cloth napkins.  The paper napkin holder has been replaced with this cute bucket and these happy colors.  Momma said I needed to practice making bobbins, threading the machine, and different stiches, so I changed my thread with each new set. 

Project #2 was a pillow case dress!  It's far from perfect...a little short and the hem stitching resmebles the curvy mountain road we take to get our Christmas tree...but it's wearable! 

Yellow Rain Boots

These yellow rain boots are our favorite shoes!  They look like something you'd find in a story book, but we found them on the sale rack at Old Navy for $9.  They are perfect for a morning of puddle jumping and digging in the mud.  And Levi can just about get them on by himself.    

Stomping on the "mush-rams"

Dirty buns

Strong muscles!

Picking berries

Watching a robin walk along the curb. 

What joy to be able to ask him "Who made you?  And who made the robin?"  and to hear him say, "God made E-why.  God made wobin."

Learning the Sweetness of Sundays

The Lord has been to doing a great work on my heart regarding the JOY of the Sabbath day.  It's plain and simple Sunday can the busiest, craziest, most stressful, and often times the unhappiest day of the week, if I allow it.  This dread of Sunday mornings all started the first Sunday we took Levi to church.  He was four weeks old and was being baptized.  It took me over TWO hours of non-stop WORK to get us out the door on time that morning.  I am a very slow when it comes to changing so learning this JOY has taken over two years and still needs much work.     

Levi's baptism was delightful!

Everyone was able to come, even G.G. Anne & Pop Pop.

One of my favorite Sunday activites has become playing "dress up" with my sweet girl.  (What was I thinking when I thought I wanted her to be a boy?!?!  I would have missed out on so much!)  I have gotten to where I have to restrain myself...we were running late after taking pictures this morning and I forgot her hair bow.  I didn't realize it until we were singing the first song in church.  I began to stress.  My first thought was to go dig through the diaper bag to see if I could scrounge one up.  Thankfully the Lord reminded me that I was there to workship HIM and my worship would be just fine without a hair bow. 

What a treat to have Bear-Bear sit with us at church!  He was and always is a JOY to sit with, especially when Josh has to work.  We never would have made it through church in one piece with out him today.  Both kids had a bad case of the "wiggles.'' 

This week I have had a few friends praying that I would learn to rest in the Lord.  Today at nap time the Lord gave me a very tangible lesson on how HE ALONE keeps it all together for me.  He's got it.  He doesn't need me stressing and planning and stressing and replanning.  At 1 o'clock I laid Mary Kathryn down for her nap and I decided to turn a movie on for Levi so that I could rest on the couch for a few minutes.  Well, that rest turned into an hour and a half comatose type of sleep.  I was O.U.T. and Levi had free reign of the house.  I remember the movie going off and him saying, "Upstairs.  Time for nap."  But I didn't move.  When I finally woke up at 2:30 the house was quiet and I was FREAKING OUT!  I could only imagine what I would find when I got up.  I laid there an eatra minute and prayed.  The Lord was gracious and had been taking great care of Levi.  I found Levi and BeeBee resting on the couch in the playroom.  Levi was so very excited to see me because he knew nap time was over .  He squealed with delight, "Mommy, wake now!" 

Part of resting in the Lord is trusting my husband.  I had a test in that area today and I passed!  I don't pass very often, but today I did and the reward was better than I could have imagined.  The test: I had been planning to go to our Home Group at 5pm, but when Josh woke up this afternoon with a headache he asked if we could stay home and have family time.  My answer:  OK!  Sounds great!  My reward:  One of the most fun conversations I have ever had with Josh.  I'm not really sure how it all played out, but he started talking about how hearing certain songs on the radio bring back memories and last night he heard a song that made him remember this really fun night in college.  As he was talking, I was putting all the pieces of his story together and realized I knew exactly what he was talking about.  There was this one Sunday night back after Home Group at the Bradford's and we had gone over to the Sullivan Building at Anderson College to swing dance with a bunch of people from RUF.  I looked across the table and said, "I remember that night!  I had a BIG crush on you, but hadn't told anyone."  As we continued talking about the fun we had that night my heart flooded with all the giddy emotions I remember feeling that night. 

In the midst of dinner and getting Josh ready for work Mary Kathryn let us know that she may not be crawling but she is very mobile.  I was standing at the sink and it sounded as if her little babbling voice was getting closer to me.  I turned around and there she was!  I had left her in the livingroom and she had some how made her way to the hall.  Delightful to see her little personality coming out!

After he left for work the kids and I had a fun evening enJOYing the playroom dispite that disaster it was.  It is so nice to see Mary Kathryn actually playing.  She is picky about her toys.  She knows when you give her a baby toy, she wants big kid toys. 

        

 Levi loves "booming on the drums"

   the rest of the family can only take so much of the drums...

Our day of rest was concluded by giving Mary Kathryn a "sink" bath.  I LOVE that she is a steady sitter and can take sink bathes.  So much easier on the kness!

A "Normal" Weekend

Each week our family's "weekend" varies depending on the days Josh is off.  It's not very often that we have what I think of as a "normal" weekend.  You know, a date with your hubby on Friday night.  Saturday everyone sleeps in a little and then you just piddle with house work throughout the day.  Saturday evening you have dinner with family or friends and then maybe do a little shopping.  And Sunday everyone is excited about worship and you actually get a nap!

Well this is just what happened to us this weekend!

Friday was cold and rainy, so Levi and I did an "eka-size" (exercise) video while Mary Kathryn napped and Josh rested from coming off 3rd shift.  Just as I was a about to hop in the shower to get ready for our lunch date with Whitney Skipper Mary Kathryn woke up!  Despite not getting a shower we did enjoy a very yummy lunch with our sweet friend.   

 

Judging from the way her belly looks Mary Kathryn could have used the workout. :)

Friday evening Josh and I enjoyed a quick date at Applebee's, not our favorite, but went where the gift card would pay.  Who needs great food when you're on a date with a great man?!  In this stage of life quick dates are so very exciting!  We dropped the kids off to play at the Thames' at 5:00pm, by the time we left it was 5:20.  We had dinner and were back at 6:45 just in time to nurse.  I do know that one day our dates will be longer.  Whitney shared with me that she was meeting Greg after lunch and they were going on an afternoon-long date. The bitter-sweetness of having "grown up" kids. 

Saturday morning we had fun playing and reading books with the kids.  I took these pictures of Josh and Mary Kathryn, so that I could look at both of them to see IF she really looks like him.  People often say she looks like Josh, but I wonder if they say that because she doesn't look like me and Levi looks JUST like me.  I guess time will tell... 

How is this ONLY 4 days worth of laundry?????  There was still a load in the washer and a load in the dryer when I took this picture. 

Josh was so kind. He folded all this laundry while I was in the kitchen making dinner and play dough!

I could not wait for Levi to wake up from nap on Saturday so that I could show him how to play with play dough.  Play dough was my favorite thing to play as a child.  Even when I would babysit I always tried to talk the kids into playing play dough.  Talk about disappointment!  First, he thought is was bread.  After being told not to eat it and that it wasn't bread he ate a HUGE spoonful.  And then he didn't even want to touch it with his hands.   Later on Josh did tell me that he did not like play dough as a kid.  He said it smells and it felt gross to him.   I still have hope for Mary Kathryn to play with me.  

Saturday evening Momma and Daddy came for dinner.  Crazy Josh decided he wanted to grill some chicken, so he bundled up and weathered the cold and wind.  It was a very yummy dinner!    

After the kids went to bed Momma and I made a late night trip to Kohl's.  We found some great deals for everyone!!  Our total bill was $154.52, but our total savings were $497.73! 

Our favorite little find were these little overalls with hearts on them for Mary Kathryn, just perfect to wear on Valentine's Day! 

 

Sunday was a treat because we were able to all be at church together.  Josh only gets to go with us twice a month with his work schedule and we have missed a lot recently with sickness.   AND miraculously I was able to get a 45 minute nap!  What a treat!   

With having a boy and a girl I don't get to do all the funny matching outfits, so we just coordinate when we can. On Sunday Mary Kathryn wore a red dress with white tights and Levi wore khakis with a white shirt and a red sweater vest, but because it was Sunday (the craziest day of the week) I didn't get a picture.  I was very tempted to dress them back up today just for a picture to put in the blog, but after several other battles I decided I would just be provoking them to anger.    

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Happy Half-Birthday, Mary Kathryn!

I remember in high school thinking about what I would one day name my children.  I still have a list that I wrote one day while "working" on school one afternoon.  At the top of the "girls'' side it says Mary Kathryn.  All I could think of was how pretty of a name it was and how special it would be to name a little girl after two of my dearest friends, Mary & Katie Bell. 
I never realized back then that one day the "Mr. Right" I was currently waiting for just MIGHT have an opinion on the matter and his opinion may not match mine.  Well, that's exactly what happened.  Josh said no double names, which meant no Mary Kathryn.  Thankfully Levi was  boy and his name was easily chosen.  But in March of 2011 our whole world was rocked when we found out that baby #2 was a girl.  My first response to the nurse was "Shut Up.  Can you re-check that?"  I just knew we would be a family with all boys, plus Adrienne.  I had convinced myself that another boy would just be so "practical" because he could wear Levi's clothes, no need to change the nursery decor, and the list went on.  We also knew that the babies gender was determined by the father and the Rivenbarks have not had a single girl that anyone knows of.   

A few days before our 20 week ultrasound it became clear to Josh and I that things were not going well with Adrienne.  The bumps in the road we had come to were really more like massive pot-holes and were causing us to wonder what the Lord was doing.  She had been with us about 4 1/2 months (October 22, 2010).  We loved having her and were so excited to finalize her adoption.  She was an unexpected gift from the Lord.  You don't usually anticipate adopting a 15 year old at the age of 25.  But the Lord had called us to it and He was seeing us through.  I remember laying my head back as she finished the ultrasound and thinking, "What a gift!  As the Lord was taking away one daughter, He was very sweet to give us another." 

Josh and I were leaving town right after our appointment to celebrate our 6th Anniversary in the Georgia mountains.  The "goal" of our trip was to find this baby a name.  Picking a name for baby #2 was hard because A) we were undecided, and B) with a 15 year old and an 18 month old there were other more pressing things to discuss.  

Our trip started with lunch at Chick-fil-A (most of our trips begin there).  I remember looking across the table at Josh and saying, "We are having a GIRL!"  We were in shock.  And then as we were on the road he reach over and took my hand and with a huge grin said, "Wow! I can't believe we are having a girl!"  

We always look forward to Cow Appreciation Day in July!

All through the first day of our trip all I wanted to ask was, "Sooo, can we name her Mary Kathryn?!?"  But I knew patience would be my best bet.  We discussed lots of other options, but in the end Josh said to me, "Mary Kathryn it is.  It just fits."

Naming both of our children has been like raising a stone of remembrance that is talked about in scripture.  A name that we can look back and say this is what the Lord was doing at the time of your birth and has been faithful to complete in you.  Mary means "bitter" and Kathryn means "pure."   There was nothing easy about being pregnant with Mary Kathryn.  I was sick all of the time.  My iron was low, so I had to go on the crazy diet.  She didn't gain as much as we would have like towards the end, so I was on another crazy protein diet.  And then I ended up with an infection which meant a no sugar or white carbohydrate diet.  It didn't help that I am not one who loves being pregnant.  I LOVE my babies, just not crazy about the 9 months.  We faced several big trials during my pregnancy.  We had several ultrasounds because there was reason to believe that Mary Kathryn's digestive system was not forming and working properly.  Adrienne decided it was best if she moved back to Mauldin.  Josh had ACL reconstruction surgery.  And it was the hottest summer I think we have ever had here in SC!  I knew and trusted that the Lord was using each of these "bitter" trials to "purify" and sanctify us.  What I didn't realize is that the Lord would use EvErYtHiNg about Mary Kathryn to sanctify me.  Especially the fact that she still  doesn't sleep through the night.  I gladly sacrifice many things but sleep is NOT one of them.  It has been 6 months of constant repentance on my part.    

In June a few girls at church threw a beautiful shower for us! Wow! It was like entering a whole new world receiving all the pink, ruffles, and monograms!

We did have record breaking high temps that summer.  I did well to workout in the mornings with several friends, but resorted to mall-walking the last few weeks. 

On my due date October 8th we spent the evening with the WHOLE family (Momma, Daddy, Lyssa, Josh, and Levi) eating more Chick-fil-A, mall-walking, and swinging at the park, I went into labor.  I remember looking at the clock at 11:46pm and thinking "OK. I think I need to time these guys."  Yep, they were starting every 5 minutes and lasting 1 minute.  I felt really bad for Josh, he had just worked 3 nights and had only slept about 4 hours that day.  But I woke him up after being in bed for 20 minutes and said, "So sorry, but you gotta get up.  She's coming!"  I had a fast labor with Levi and I did not want to risk Elizabeth (our midwife) not being here.    

 

I was very fearful of being left alone, so Josh stayed with me until Lyssa got here.  Labor would have been so scary without her. She was so great at timing my contractions and keeping good notes for Josh and Elizabeth, our midwife.  I spent a good portion of my labor in the bed lying on my side...it's crazy how it was quite the opposite with Levi, I walked the whole time I was in labor.  About 1:15am I felt a "pop" and my water had broken.  My contractions were starting every 2 minutes and lasting about a minute.  After a little potty trip (it's not a break because labor doesn't stop). :)  I made my way to the living room where the contractions were starting every minute and lasting a minute.  I thought I would die!  There was no break. And poor Alyssa couldn't keep track of my contractions because all I could do was grunt when they would start. 

I do remember during each contraction I would relax and pray.  I prayed for you to be a godly woman who fears the Lord and love Jesus.  As the contractions got harder and closer together the only thing I could think to pray was, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me..." As time went on and there was no break in between I couldn't say the whole verse.  I just kept saying, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
" over and over.  Death felt very close. :)

It was about 2:40am when I asked if I could get into the tub.  I was insistent that Elizabeth check me before I got in the tub because I was fearful of pushing too soon like I did with Levi.  I was at 7cm, and I was devastated.  It had only been tough 3 hours and with Levi it took 2 hours to get from 8cm to 10cm.  I was exhausted and tempted to get angry with the Lord because I knew I could still have hours to go.  I remember praying against my urge to get angry and asking for grace to endure as long as I needed to.  It took me a few contractions to actually move and get into the tub.  Once I was in I did fell better, but then I had the urge to push.  I was frustrated, knowing it wasn't time yet.  So I fought the urge with all my might for 2 contractions.  I was on my knees leaning against the side of the tub trying to relax and not push.  I think I just needed to know that she was not ready to come out yet, so I felt for her head and there it was already coming out!   I was freaking out!!!  I was so scared.  It took 2 hours to push Levi out and here she was coming out with no pushing at all!  I yelled out, "I feel her head!!!"  Elizabeth came rushing in (7 1/2 months pregnant herself) and with one big push Mary Kathryn was here at 2:57am! 

I had gone from 7 cm to having a baby in a matter of minutes.  It was insane!  Now after having her for 6 months I see that, that is how Mary Kathryn does everything.  She waits until she is ready and she just does it, no easing into things with her.  She decided to roll over one day and the next she made it across the rug.  She did the wobbly sit for a day or two and then at 5 months she was a pro.    

She is delightful!  And I am looking forward to the next 6 months as we anticipate her BIG party that I began brainstorming about during my walks in the mall last summer before she was born. :)