New Blog(s)

So...

Reflections of a Princess has moved to www.reflectionsofaprincess.com and is taking a much slower pace these days.

In the last few months I've started two new blogs one about books and one about our Montessori homeschooling journey:

Mountains of Books is where you can see what I'm reading, book reviews, and other random bookish stuff. Stop by http://mountainsofbooks.wordpress.com

Our Montessori Home is where you can see what we're doing with Joey for "school" and learn more about Montessori. Stop by www.ourmontessorihome.com

Ultimate Blog Party!

The Ultimate Blog Party is here...along with the new website. Reflections of a Princess has moved to

www.reflectionsofaprincess.com

The family "stuff" will stay here until I get the family blog up and running.

Celebrating our Anniversary

Joe took Monday and Tuesday off from work so we had an extended weekend, which was nice. We spent much of it lounging in our pajamas, watching movies, and enjoying our time together.

Monday, as we were cooking breakfast, Joey sat down at the piano and started playing away! It surprised us all! Well...he was sitting on my lap, but he did his own banging and had fun!

Monday afternoon we went to the beach for the first time since Joey was born. He touched the sand (and even the frigid Pacific!) for the first time!

Our attempt at a family picture. There were quite a few tries. These were just the best three.

On Tuesday, the 17th, we went to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. Joe and I went there last year on our anniversary too. It was pretty much the same, but still fun. And no white shoes this year, just sandals...which pretty much got my feet dirty. What was fun about this is that last year at the Flower Fields is when we had a hint of suspicion there was a little bun in the oven...and there was!

In the evening, we put Joey to bed and Chuck "watched" him so that Joe and I could go out to dinner. We felt very cosmopolitan with a reservation at 8:30pm. (We wanted to make sure that Joey would be settled and have time for the unexpected.)

We went to Jake's at Del Mar where we went for my birthday a few years ago. It was fun and very tasty. And to our surprise we weren't as distracted about leaving our baby boy as we thought! I think mostly due to the fact that he was already asleep. But, of course, within minutes of us arriving him the little boy woke up!

It was a fun anniversary all in all and thank you for all your calls and greetings. Oh! And sorry if we hung up on you. We kept getting call after call while we were at the Flower Fields and in trying to turn off the volume on the cell phone we hung up (or almost hung up) on a few people. Oops!

Our Anniversary!

Two years ago today
we said,
"I do"!

A Good Reminder for Us All

A Marriage Advice Moment with John Piper

A staff member at Bethlehem asked Pastor John what one or two main things he wants to say to an engaged couple in premarital counseling. His answer is relevant for marriages new and old:

Be joyfully, brokenheartedly, shaped by the death of Christ for you.

Do you both feel the fearfulness of how the death of Christ witnesses to your unspeakable unworthiness to be loved—that it took this much suffering and indignity to the Son of God for you to be saved. And do you both feel the wonder of being forgiven owing to nothing in you?

If you do, it will profoundly shape your patience with each other’s shortcomings (which you will find to be more than you ever dreamed).

Get really clear the meaning of headship and submission.

Husband, tremble at the implications of Ephesians 5:25-30.

Wife, tremble at the implications of Ephesians 5:21-24.

Understand this and glory in the greatness of the calling to be married for the sake of showing the world the covenant faithfulness between Christ and his church.

Grieved to the Point of Death

And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the
point of death; remain here and keep watch."

Mark 14:34

How quickly do we read this verse? It has just become part of the story for us. A means to an end. Do we ever sit and ponder the humanity of Jesus at this point? Do we think of him more as God than man? Able to handle the sorrow and pain to come, I mean, he is God after all.

Grieved to the point of death. What does that even feel like?

The hour is late. Stillness settles like an eerie cloud over Jerusalem. As He enters the gate in the wall around Gethsemane, Jesus motions to Peter, James, and John to come with Him...

Jesus moves slowly, perhaps stopping to lean against a gnarled tree trunk. White knuckles protrude from tightened fists and His head hangs in weariness. The men glance at one another, wondering what to do. Their Teacher has never been like this before. They saw Him cry when His friend Lazarus died; and only a week ago, as He entered Jerusalem, He sobbed out loud over the neediness there. Yet that was a strong cry--laced with sadness perhaps, but not despair.

This is different. Overwhelming sorrow consumes Him. Teeth clenched, Jesus utters: "My soul is grieved to the point of death"...a beleaguered bellow from the depths of His being.

from Contemplating the Cross by Tricia Rhodes, p. 6

Obediently Humbled

Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

"Obediently humbled." What does that say? It suggests that humility wasn't easy for Jesus, and we know it's not easy for us.

To be obediently humbled alludes to a battle of the wills, a choice. A deliberate choice to obey God. Christ's example is the ultimate humility. It was humility to the point of death--death on a cross, the ultimate embarrassment and shame (Php. 2:8). When I think of this I remember there is nothing too lowly for me to do.

I thought of this verse often in my first two years of teaching preschool, because one of my after-school duties was cleaning. Cleaning everything--even the bathrooms. And do you know how bad preschool bathroom's smell? You don't want to know. My human response was to say, "I don't need to be doing this. This is disgusting. Why don't they just hire someone to do this?" When the truth is there's nothing too lowly for me.

If the Perfect Son & God of the universe can bear the burden of humanity's sin on his shoulders and be humiliated by dying a sinner's death,* then what it too lowly for me?

Humility isn't easy. It's a lowering of yourself for the sake of another. It's saying "no" to you and "yes" to someone else. It's not easy, but it's better. Just think of the freedom humility brings. If I'm not so concerned and wrapped up in my needs, my time, and my pursuits, then living for God and serving others would be so simple. I wouldn't be holding onto anything, so others wouldn't be taking anything away. Isn't that what entitlements really are? Holding onto something we feel others are trying to take?


*This is huge in and of itself. Christ died. His ministry had proclaimed him to be the Son of God, the Messiah. He was a man of miracles. At the cross, the people thought him to be a fool and a fraud. If the "self-proclaimed" Son of God couldn't get himself down off the cross, then, was he really anything special? In their eyes, he had been humiliated--made low. But, then, they didn't know the low would be lifted high (Php. 2:9-11).