Weekend Mom

Steven and I have six darling nieces and nephews and since we are settled into our house, I have been dying to have some of them over to spend the night. In February, we kept my 8 month old niece Marleigh while my sister and her hubby took a much needed weekend trip to Hilton Head. I was a little nervous about having a baby in the house for the whole weekend, but it turned out to be WONDERFUL! She is such a sweet baby and we had the best time! Unfortunately, I was not successful in my attempts to get Steven to change a diaper. He observed, but had no interest in taking one on for himself. He did do a great job of playing with her and feeding her and even made up a little song about her while he was singing her to sleep. It was the most precious thing I've ever seen!

This past weekend, we decided to take the whole crew of Xander (age 6), Bella (age 4), and Gracie (age 3). They stayed with us Friday AND Saturday night, and boy did we have some fun! I planned out things for us to do so we could keep the fun rolling. Saturday, Steven took Xander fishing while me, Bella, and Gracie went to the nail salon and treated ourselves to manicures and pedicures! They did great and loved every minute of it! That night, we made cupcakes, played the Wii, made popcorn, and watched Despicable Me. They were great the whole weekend, except for the occasional emotional breakdowns between the two girls over sharing stuffed animals. It was an interesting weekend for me with waking up at 7am and cooking breakfast for 3 kids and getting them all dressed, with teeth brushed, and out the door. I was exhausted! It was fun having the "mom" experience for the weekend, but right now, it's nice to be able to give them back when the weekend is over. We are currently debating about when to take the tornado, known as Nate, on for a weekend. He's one of those that will come solo. We love them all so much and want them to know that they are always welcome to come visit Uncle Steven and Aunt Candace!

Hi. My name is Candace and I'm a workaholic.

If my life were a plate of food, it would be one of those supposedly "heavy duty" paper plates loaded to the max with fixings from a family reunion. You can't even see where one section of food begins and ends. It all just runs together and the solid foods like bread, ham, or a chicken leg, are just piled on top of the mountains of mashed potatoes and casseroles. Needless to say, my "heavy duty" plate is helplessly bending out of proportion and screaming for relief!! Don't you just love how life can do that to you sometimes? (I prefer to blame it on life rather than my inability to say NO, but we won't go there right now). Don't get me wrong, life is wonderful right now, and with all that I have going on, I would say that I am doing a good job of keeping my head above the water. My grades aren't suffering (yet), and I am keeping up pretty well with everything else...all thanks to my severe case of OCD and a WONDERFUL, AMAZING husband!!! He helps me with laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner whenever I work later in the evening. He does it so that when I come home, I can spend time with him and work on homework. He's so considerate of all that I have going on and that means so much to me. All he does, however, doesn't come without the occasional lecture of how I should really downsize on the things I commit to. I love his honesty and the fact that he wants me home more so that we can have more time together. I just love that he's not afraid to let me know how he feels about things and he always does it in a direct, yet compassionate, way. 

Not comparing my husband to God, but isn't that the way God communicates with us? He is direct, yet compassionate towards His children. When I feel overwhelmed, He's there with open arms to comfort me and hear my cries, but He also stands there with a direct solution. As stubborn human beings, we often take the compassion, but put off the solution because it may be inconvenient. Through my busy schedule, I am ashamed to say that I have allowed my time with God to suffer. That should not be so. This week I have gotten back into God's Word and I just felt pulled to the book of Hosea. I LOVE that story because it is a reflection of our relationship with God. We are sinful creatures, and much like Gomer, we are spiritual harlots. We give ourselves to anything and everything in this world, leaving our leftovers to God. We are continuously unfaithful to Him. Yet, as we stand in chains being sold as slaves to our sin, Christ steps up as the highest bidder, just like Hosea did for Gomer. She had been an unfaithful wife to him, yet when she was at her lowest point, being sold in the marketplace, Hosea bought her and brought her home as his wife. No matter the hurt she had caused him, he still rescued her. Isn't that beautiful?? Christ paid the ultimate price for us, even as we stood there, stained by the world and our sins. I find such great encouragement in that beautiful story. 

Life flows much better when we hand the reigns over Christ. This week has been wonderful, and my plate, although still heavy with food, is in the hands of someone who can carry and endless amount of plates in just one hand. He's my Savior and burden bearer. Without Him, I would be a disaster.

Clean laundry, grilled cheese, and shrimp salad!

I can't believe I have neglected my blog for so long!! Oh how I have missed having time to share funny experiences in life! Since my last blog, Steven and I got married and are enjoying every single moment of our new life together. I know...newlyweds are gross, but marriage really is a beautiful thing. Don't get me wrong, the man can drive me bananas, but I wouldn't trade him for anything! We have had a blast together so far and to quote my best friend Martha's take on marriage, "It's like a sleep over that never ends!" What's better than coming home and snuggling up to your hubby at the end of a long day? I'll tell you what's better....coming home and finding all of the laundry clean and folded and him standing in the kitchen cooking dinner!! And it's happened TWICE!! It may be just because we're still in the "honeymoon" phase of our marriage, but honeymoon phase or not, I'LL TAKE IT! Last night I walked in and there he was making grilled cheese and garlic shrimp salad! He's so great. Another precious thing he does is make sure he kisses me goodnight before we fall asleep. Once night I he fell asleep before me because I was up late working on some homework and when I finally crawled into bed and passed out, he woke up from a dead sleep and gave me a kiss. It's those little things that just make marriage wonderful. Gross...I know.

We may be only a month into this thing, but i know that we will last many many years to come because we have a solid foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes first in our marriage and nothing will ever change that. Our dedication to God and His Word keep us grounded in our faith and in our marriage. As a wife, I have to constantly uplift my husband in prayer and show him the respect he deserves as both my husband and a called man of God. Those things aren't always easy to do when frustrations arise, but it's through those frustrations that the true test comes in my dedication to him as his wife. We've already learned so much and I love to see the shock on people's faces when they ask if we have had our first fight yet and we tell them no. We get along so well and we are learning how to communicate and talk through the things that bother us. I love marriage. It's so wonderful. But then again, why wouldn't it be wonderful? God Almighty created it.

Mr. & Mrs. Steven Day

Our massive wedding party