Thankful Thursday

I have seen several people on Face Book and blogs recently start lists of things that they are thankful for as a way to celebrate this Thanksgiving season. I love reading these lists and the little reminders of God's goodness that they provide. A few weeks ago I began my own Thankful List, not publicly, but written in a notebook to serve as a timeline journal and a visual reminder of God's blessings, big or small, whimsical or serious. I thought I would share a few things here on Thursdays for a few months. I would love for you to join in and leave a small list of things that you are thankful for in the comment section!

~An adventerous husband! (He let me cut his hair last week...it didn't end well)
~Those WONDERFUL baby smiles!
~A uneventful 4.5hour drive with Will to my parent's house to be with them while my mom is recovering from a hip replacement.

~My Mom's sucessful and safe surgery.

~Grace

Sewing Class

For the past 5 weeks I have been thrilled to be part of a sewing class at our church! Unfortunately my 7th grade Home Ec. skills are a bit rusty and I was having trouble tackling a few sewing projects that have caught my eye, so I jumped on the opportunity to join this class! It is offered for the women who live in the apartment complexes that surround our church. Many, if not most, of the families that live there are immigrants from around the world! I was the only student in the class that spoke English as a first language and the only one that did not speak Arabic (Most of the women in the class are from Morocco, Iran and Southern Sudan). This class provided a wonderful opportunity to not only learn some basic sewing skills, but to meet these beautiful women in the fellowship of learning! 

These are just a few pictures from our last class! I LOVE  the beautiful smiles!

Crafts

I just had to share with you a few craft projects that are simply adorable! All are on my never ending "to do" list!

ABC Memory Scriptures!So cute! Click here for a free download of A-Z! I know that Will won't be able to use these for a while but I'm ready to make a set to put on his book shelf now!

I have been blessed to be able to join a sewing class at my church on Friday mornings and I think my sewing skills are getting a bit better! The class was offered to the immigrant women who live in the community around our church and I am the only student there who speaks English fluently. As a result, I now know 1 word in Arabic (but couldn't begin to guess how to spell it!) When my class gets over I would love to try making this scarf from Make It and Love It looks so easy and  I already have material for it!

Do you have any craft projects that are on your list?

3weeks in review

We have had a busy little stretch these past 3weekends! Wonderful memories and times with family and friends! Here's a recap: Weekend #1we headed down to Norfolk for Bryan's graduation! He graduated Summa Cum Laude! I am so proud of him and so thankful for all of the hard work he has put into this degree for the good of our family!

Bryna's parent's made the 12+hour drive to be with us and we were also able to spend time with my mom and brother, aunt and uncle and friend Amy

Also, It was the first time Will and Grandpa Hable were able to meet in person!

The next weekend we celebrated our friend Logan's 1st birthday!

 and enjoyed a rainy football day!

Weekend #3 we traveled to Lexington for our friends Wella's wedding! Wella and I met during a Bible study several years ago and she sang at our wedding so it was very special to celebrate with her!

 Isn't she beautiful! They had a 40's themed wedding and so many people came in character!

(love!)

The wedding was held at VMI, my brother's Alma Mater, so we spent some time hanging out with two of his brother rats.

We ended the weekend in Wayneseboro, having dinner with my former co-workers and friends! It was so wonderful to see them and catch up on the wonderful things that God is doing in their lives!

Joy

Abiding Joy does not depend upon what's happening around us;

 it exists because of the One who's living in us.

~ B.J. Hoff

What brings you joy?

My favorite Room

William's room is most definitely my favorite room in our house right now...

uncluttered

a little whimsical

peaceful

Of course, no nursery would be complete without a cat that sleeps in the drawer under your crib!
(We are still not sure how he gets in there!)

But my favorite thing about this room...

would be this little man!

Divorce and Alzheimer's

Earlier this week Pat Robertson suggested that someone who divorces their spouse because they suffer from Alzheimer's is not sinning.

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

Ephesians 5:22-33 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. ?(A) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church,(B) without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (C)In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Stepping over the fact that God says "no" to divorice in the first place and moving on, the Bible also says (A) We should being willing to sacrifice everything for our spouses, ergo "others". (B) Our spouse's well-being should be of the utmost importance to us. (C) We should care for our spouse the way would care for our own body, the way Christ cared for us.

While that is shocking enough, Robertson also suggested that a person with Alzheimer's is "gone". I have spent several years working with the geriatric population and have witnessed the sad toll that Alzheimer's can take on a person. Most of the patients I encountered had a very faithful spouse or child, one who never dreamed leaving their loved one for their own ease and pleasure. And no matter how far "gone" that person is, there is always still some sort of a connection there. I knew a woman who "wasn't married" but would sit and tell you about the cutest boy she ever knew "Willy" and she wondered what ever happened to him. But when Willy was there she could tell you exactly who he was: "that's my ol' husband". And no matter how "gone" they are, they are still loved by our God and they should be by their family as well, just as Christ loves the church.

I love this author's explanation of the body

Two wonderful months

When your smiling...

 When your laughing...

Date Night.... Restaurant Deals

I'm detrimed to finish the last few date night posts that I had planned...


If you don't consider a date complete without a meal then check this out!
Cheap Date Night is a listing of local restaurants here in Richmond that provide date night deals! here's a sample:
On Monday and Tuesday night at Avenue 805 you can get a large salad, a large bowl of pasta (meat is extra), a dessert and a bottle of the house wine for $35!
Here in Richmond there are several restaurants that provide deals like this. If you don't live in Richmond Google restaurants that have Date Night discounts in your area.

lately.....

....we've been a little busy with this guy:

William was born July 10th at 11:36am!
At his 1month check up last week he weighed in at 11lbs and 23inches!
We're in love!

more to come.....

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

This song always reminds me that I am FREE to tell my story, but I don't own my story...the Holy King of Israel does!

Andrew Peterson - Dancing in the Minefields (Official Video)

A great love song...

Date Night...Movie in the Park

I love summer evenings in Virginia! Having lived in Michigan for a few years, summer days in Virginia are just a little too hot for our liking. But the evenings are beautiful! A few times each summer one of our local parks hosts a movie night. Just bring a blanket and a few snacks! Cost? FREE! Bryan and I usually head out before dark and enjoy a walk around the park before settling in for the movie. Check your local Parks and Rec to find out if there are any outdoor movies in your area!

Date Night...Baseball

After two...count'em, two years of 40hour work weeks and 3 classes a semester Bryan is (almost) done with school! I'm so proud of him! I want to brag about his GPA and about how well things are going at his job and how lucky I am to have a husband who is working so hard for our family! But, what I really want... SOME ATTENTION! There have been many week nights and many weekends that I have had to stop myself from pouting as he's closed himself up in our room studying for hours on end. I have had to pray that my heart would be in the right place and that God would remind me that He set us on this journey, therefore He would not abandon me to a life of loneliness (yes, I could be a little dramatic about it).

Needless to say, we are ready for some date nights at our house! What's that you say? "Jayme, your having a baby in a month! Your date nights are numbered for a while!"

Oh! Trust me! I'm living it up! 

(at least as much as I can at 9months pregnant)

Over a series of posts I want to share with you some of the great date ideas that we've found, particularly some that are easy to pull off on a budget. My hope is that these ideas will inspire you to look for more ideas and carry those out!  

We are not big baseball fans in the Hable house, at all, but we love to head out on a Friday night (as we did this past Friday night) to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game! The Flying Squirrels are our local minor league team and play several home games in a row at a time. There is something fun about being downtown in a cheering crowd! I love that we can talk during the game and at minor league games there tends to be so much more going on besides the baseball game!

 I should say that this is a great family date idea too! Our ball park has so many things going on for kids (they don't HAVE to sit in their seats the whole game) and the games are always family friendly. I also admire how well the players conduct themselves compared to their Major League counterparts.

 At our stadium tickets are $6-8, parking is $3 (food is very expensive though).

This summer most league parks are participating in a special deal with  KRAFT FOODS! On Tuesdays bring a Kraft Singles wrapper and buy one ticket, get one free! Our park also has a million other offers and a ton of give-a-ways (if the game goes into extra innings they give you a coupon for free coffee at a local gas station, if a certain player from the visiting team strikes out you can use your game ticket to get a free taco from a local restaurant, etc).

So...find a night, make a plan, and enjoy each other's company! It's that easy!

Where have I been?

I have to admit, I'm not the best at keeping up with anything! This blog has been severely neglected the past several months. Which is a shame. This past fall and winter have been a roller coaster of emotions and events, and Bryan and I have continued to add to the novel of our lives. Honestly, We could write a book about God's timing just in the short year and a half that we've been married!
The easiest way to catch you up is just to say this...

WE'RE EXPECTING!

10 WEEKS

20 WEEKS

IT'S A BOY!!!

This was very UNEXPECTED! To be honest, we believed that I would have trouble conceiving because of PCOS. Earlier in the fall we had chosen to abandon our former form of birth control for (personal reasons) and go with Natural Family Planning. Let me tell you now...NFP is no sure thing one way or the other and November found us very very surprised!
But we are THRILLED! Baby Boy is due July 21st and so far is as healthy as can be! We are working with a regular OB and a high-risk OB, secondary to a Congenital Heart Defect that my youngest brother had at birth. Last week we had a very detailed scan of the heart done and PRAISE THE LORD, everything looks great!

So....now that your caught up on the big news I propose a challenge to myself to keep up with this blog! So many things have happened in our lives over the past year and I know that I have a message of God's love and perfect, all be it sometimes confusing, timing. I can and should do no less then share it!