Happy Birthday, Babe...

On this day, 32 years ago, before you even took a breath, God had numbered and designed every single one of your days...placed everything inside you that would make you who you are today...an amazing husband, daddy, teacher, coach...I am amazed and so thankful that, in those moments of creating you, He had me {us, these kids, this life} in mind. He's given me more than I could have asked for or imagined. Love you, babe, and so do they!

{Well, I couldn't not post for Mark's birthday after doing Ethan and Karis'. It'd be too much work for me to pull out and scan his baby pictures this morning, though, even though I'd love to show this one we have...so you could see that, at one point in his life, my husband was chunky.}

Deep Thoughts...

My friend Mandy posted this question on her blog over the weekend:
Moms, I Need Your Opinion

Moms, are you more content when:

A) You know all you have to focus on is your kids & your home?

B) You have additional passion outside kids & home to focus on?

Why?

I was struck by the fact that I didn't have an immediate answer. It took me a while to think through where I am at on this spectrum. Here is what I posted in response on Mandy's blog:

...I’ve determined that I am really most content when I’m doing A, although sometimes I’m called to B. I am most passionate about knowing and serving Christ, and there are times when He calls me to focus outside of my family/home in service to Him. There are seasons when He gives me rest, though, and allows my focus to go back to home/family. I feel like my other “passions” (running, teaching, etc) can easily be set aside with very little impact on the contentedness of my soul.

If you're a mom, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think it's possible to be only A or only B? Is it a spectrum? Are there seasons for each? Post your thoughts!

Happy Birthday, Karis!

A {short} year and 16 days after Ethan came along, Karis joined our little family. She was sweet and gorgeous from day one...and all three of us fell in love with her.

It seems that Karis has spent much of the first six years of her life being "Ethan's little sister". She learned ABC's with him, potty trained with him, laughed with him, loved Star Wars with him, shared a bedroom with him...sometimes because she wanted to...and sometimes because that's just the way life is when you're born that close together.

I love that in the past several months, Karis is finding herself. She's strong and great at gymnastics. She creates amazing abstract art. She loves broccoli, but not asparagus. She has an eye for making beautiful jewelery. She can catch fish likes it's nobody's business. She loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian. She doesn't like soccer so much, and wishes there was cross-country for elementary school. She is embracing her role as big sister more and more every day. She's still painfully shy, but her friends are starting to number two hands instead of two fingers. She can share the gospel story {even if it is only with her little sister at this point} like she just graduated from seminary.

Although there are days our personalities clash and I'm much too hard on her, I love this girl like crazy. I don't know what I'd do if God hadn't surprised us with her. Lord, please guard this little girl's heart, mind, and body as she grows into a young woman in the coming years. We pray that she will continue to cherish things that are pure and innocent, and that she will gain the confidence to share Your Love Story with everyone that she meets.

I did it!!

Well, I ran my half-marathon this past Sunday. Don't look at me funny, but...I really enjoyed it!! I know it sounds so weird to run 13 miles and say that you've enjoyed it, but I did. I think I might officially become a half-marathoner.

(my cheering squad...that's one of my high school track coaches in the yellow jacket :O))

Seriously, though, I had the "perfect" experience.

I could train while my hubby was home with the kids or they tagged along on bikes. {There were two times I left the kids with a neighbor friend for quick work-outs, and I managed to get over the guilt of that. I mean, how many times have you left your kids with a friend so you could get to your hair or doctor appointment or whaterver. I've convinced myself it's not any different...}

I experienced no injuries and never even got a blister until my 12 mile run.


All the kids started sleeping all night for about the last month, so I was well rested.


The training plan worked step by step. {I did alter the last week a bit since our schedule was crazy, I had that wonderful monthly visitor, and the mileage just seemed really high to me.}


I don't think I could have asked for a better race morning. The weather was overcast and cool. The crowd wasn't overwhelming. My nerves settled after my second "potty" stop before the start, and I didn't have to take any potty stops along the way. Everything went smoothly.


Once the horn blew, I just settled in and had almost two hours of "church". It was really an amazing feeling. I was doing what I feel like God created my body to do in a place that He created for me to enjoy while quietly singing prayers and praise to Him.


My goal was to cross the finish line in 2 hours or less, with no walking. At about 9 miles I knew that {unless something crazy happened} I was going to finish under 2 hours. At that point my goal became to get as close to 1:50 as possible. I finished in 1:51 and some seconds (official times haven't been posted yet)...and I didn't have to walk at all!
It felt good accomplishing this goal. I still think, at some point, I'll try a full marathon, but I'm waiting till the time is right...and I think I'll only put myself through one of those, just to say I did. But this half-marathon thing I could definitely see myself doing on a somewhat regular basis. That's okay with you, Mark, right? :O)

Happy Birthday, Ethan

Today our first born {strong-willed, athletic, intelligent, emotional, stubborn, hard-thinking, germaphobic, reasoning, thrill-seeking, handsome, never wrong, family-loving, scientific, quiet} son turns eight years old. Lord, we pray that You will use the foundation we've partnered with You to build these past 8 eight years and grow this boy into a man that loves You...brings others to love You...and chases hard after You.

He always provides

Here in the Hunter house we are used to coming into summer with the extra cushion of Mark's track coaching pay check. Since he didn't coach last spring, things have been pretty tight the past few weeks. I've been trying to figure out what things I can cut out so we can build the checking account back up and find a way to pay off Mark's car by March, almost 4 years ahead of schedule. I couldn't find much of anything that we can do without, though (believe me...there aren't many extras happening in this house). So I resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to keep saving our nickels and dimes by using my coupons and shopping the clearance racks...and pray they'd add up to more than I was expecting!

I'm so thankful that the Lord knows our hearts and our desire to make the most of the resources He gives us...and then does more than we expect.

On Tuesday night a neighbor called, out of the blue, and asked if they could pay me to watch their kindergartner a few days a week. He is actually our neice's half brother, and one of the little boys that came to our Backyard Bible Club. Dad is going back to school and Mom works full time. He'll be in morning kindergarten, so he'll get off the bus at our house on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and spend about 8-10 hours a week here. He's a good kid and it shouldn't be much trouble at all. I'll still be able to do the morning activities I planned to do with Natalie and Levi, and I think Natalie will really enjoy having him around (I lost track of the number of times this summer she told me she needed to play with someone besides her family!)...hopefully he won't mind entertaining her a bit!

The Big Switch

We made the big switch last week. From cribs to bunk beds. From a big kid and a baby room to a boys' room and a girls' room.

It was almost kind of spontaneous. Mark was done staining and oiling the second set of beds, but we weren't quite sure when we were going to have time to take the cribs down and get the beds put together. I think, for me, that was the way to go. We had just picked gobs of peaches and blueberries that morning, so I was busy in the kitchen and Mark got busy making the change upstairs. I didn't have a chance to get too emotional about it. Before I knew it, it was done, and the kids were super excited. I didn't even have time to shed a tear {until later that night when I saw my sweet, tiny little boy asleep in that big huge bed and realized in the blink of an eye he is going to stretch from headboard to footboard}.

I was glad they were ALL excited, too. There was a time when Ethan {hater of change} said he wanted to share a bedroom with Karis forever. In the last several months though, he has become more "big boyish" and realized sharing a room with his little sister isn't quite that cool. I wasn't sure how Levi would respond either. He was a bit upset to see his crib go, but once we put the sports balls sheets on his bed, there was no turning back for him. I also figured he'd spend the first week or so climbing out of it 150 times before falling asleep. Thankfully, since the boy rarely naps anymore, he was beat by bedtime and didn't give us any trouble at all.

I love that with "big" beds I can climb in with each kid for prayers, cuddles, and kisses at bedtime. I hate that with two sets of bunk beds I want to chop my arms off every time I have to change sheets. There are some final touches to be done to both rooms. I need to paint over the handprint border in the boys' room and hopefully find them some curtains. I'd also like to paint some flowers and a verse on the wall in the girls' room. Two projects that will probably have to wait for some colder weather.