smiles in my heart

Well, the last few months have been a roller coaster, and I have very little doubt that the next few months will continue to be a roller coaster, but let me share some things in my life that cause me to praise the Lord:

• We paid my car off this week! I am thrilled about that because that means we are making progress toward getting out of debt… and it also means that we are inching ever closer to being able to start a family. (I’m assuming that the like 3 people that read this know me quite well… but I long to be a stay-at-home mommy when I have little ones, so we are working very hard to make that happen, and we have to get some of this stuff paid off to achieve that goal.)
• My shoulder is doing much better! I still have “on” days and “off” days, but overall, I am feeling MUCH better, and I have even been able to hold babies without pain. Thank you, Lord! (Just FYI – I still have the divot and probably always will… but I am fully content to be pain-free and divot-ful.)
• I ran two miles a couple of weeks ago! Granted, I’ve been a lazy bum for the last couple of weeks, so I have only run one or two days since then… but I had never ever run that far in my life. Also granted, I think it took me 30 minutes to run 2 miles… but let’s not talk about that. [Writer’s note: A few months ago, I said I was praying for the day that I could say, “I went all day today without pain AND I ran two miles.” Praise the Lord! That day is here!]
• I am officially started on my Christmas shopping! I’m done buying gifts for Sister’s fiancé, I’m almost done with Mom, and I’m making progress on Dad and Sister. Lance isn’t sure what he wants, and we have NO idea what his mom and brother want, so I’m nowhere near done… but progress is a good thing!
• I have two days off work next week! I’m very excited to have the Thanksgiving holidays coming up. I love spending time with my family and having some time off work… and it means I get to set up my house for Christmas! HOOOOOray!
• Our house is getting prettier! This past weekend, my friend Corie’s dad (who is a general contractor) came and began installing crown molding at our house. While he did that, I painted in our bathroom. The weekend before, we painted trim in our entry hall. Things look all construction zone-y at our house right now, but it is looking more like we want it to look… and closer to actually being DONE, which is pretty remarkable. I’m starting to believe that we’ll never actually be DONE, but I am excited about crossing a few things off the list.
• We are at peace. We have had a lot of things going on the past few weeks. We’ve had some big decisions to make (we finally made them – hooray!), and we have felt a constant sense of uneasiness as we tried to make the best decision possible. We finally have some peace back. I have to say, though, that I am incredibly, overwhelmingly blessed to be married to Lance. In the midst of constant strife, we did not fight with each other. We never went to bed angry. We were each other’s support and encouragement. It is a tremendous blessing to be married to someone who views marriage as a priority and a ministry.

Thanks for all the blessings, Lord. I appreciate them.