On the road again….

Well, not that I’ve been great about keeping up with this blog as much as our other site (www.eCONEmicLiving.com), but I definitely will not be posting as much over the next two weeks. We’re driving down to Florida to spend my birthday at Disney World (for free of course!), spend a week back at ‘home’ in south Florida catching up with friends and family and then back up to Disney on our way home next weekend for our daughter’s birthday!

So, as the Cone girls prepare to celebrate, we pray you also are having a wonderful summer and stay tuned for more of my random thoughts when we get back (you know I’ll have a bunch of them!)

“Pain is a sign of Life”

I heard Hank Williams Jr.’s daughter utter this quote on the news tonight.

Three years after a near fatal car crash, she was performing on stage for the first time tonight. At one point during her 6 weeks in the hospital, she asked her doctor when the pain would end. After having been brought back from death, he encouraged her by telling her, “Pain is a sign of life.”

Too often we pray for God to take the pain away. Have you ever stopped to think that the daily burdens that tend to overwhelm us could actually be reminders to enjoy what we have?

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11

Incredible Shrinking Kids

I had big babies.

I don’t say this to boast about my child-birth prowess (of which there is none!), but simply to set the stage for my story: my daughter was just shy of 9 pounds (and came to us one week early) and my son was 9 pounds 5 ounces.

My daughter has always been off the charts at the doctor’s office and worn clothes twice the size of other kids her age because of how tall she was. My son has been wearing 24 month clothing since he was 6 months old.

You can then imagine my surprise as we pulled the summer clothes out of their boxes recently when I discovered most of what we had was too big for them! Kariss, who we’d been buying size 10’s and 12’s for last year was swimming in all her summer offerings. And Britton, who we thought at 3 years old should surely be fitting in a size 3, was suddenly more comfortable in the same 24 month clothing he’s been sporting for the past 3 years!

I never thought I’d be rushing out to buy my kids new clothes in sizes SMALLER than what they had previously worn. Must be that healthy mountain air they’ve been breathing

Is prayer a burden for you?

I just got back from enjoying a couple hours at the pool with a new friend here in Nashville who invited me and the kids to hang out with her this morning. Of course we stayed longer than we should have (it’s so hard to pull kids away from a pool!), so I was hurrying them through lunch and bedtime preparations in order to salvage nap time.

I had successfully gotten Britton into his bed after a song and a prayer and then went to follow up with Kariss. After she completed her baby’s bedtime routine, she climbed into bed and waited for me to turn on her fan, push play on her CD and chew on her left ear (the latter is a new addition to the routine – she says it gives her goose bumps!). I know she would have been content with just that and I could have walked out of the room and started my own down time. But I felt an internal tug – “you haven’t prayed yet” came from a voice inside of me.

“It makes no difference to her,” I thought to myself. Yet just at that moment I was stopped in my tracks.

All at once my mind was flooded with all the prayers that have carried me through my life; while I may not have heard each of them or known they were being prayed at the time, I know I am where I am now thanks to those prayers.

So I quickly turned back, leaned over my little girl and thanked God for who she is, how she takes care of her baby and her brother and most of all for the gift that she is in my life.

Do you see prayer as a burden, something that unnecessarily takes up time in your day, or are you burdened to pray, feeling grateful that God would choose to to sit as His feet and listen to your words and petitions? I pray the latter for you today. Your life and the life of those you pray for will forever be changed as a result of that burden.

Happy Father’s Day

I hope each and every dad out there know what a special role God has equipped him for. I know holidays can often bring feelings of hurt, sadness and anger instead of the expected joy and celebration.

Regardless of the experience you have with your own father, I pray that you celebrate him today in the knowledge that our Heavenly Father was the first daddy and will exceedingly meet all our needs. Don’t look today at what your father has done to you or for you as much as I hope you look at how you can serve and honor him.

Thank you dad, for being one of the most consistent men I know. I Love You and am so grateful for you (and that your voice is back!)
Ricky, I love you and am amazed daily at your dedication to our family!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

If you’re looking for something to do for Father’s Day, click HERE to visit eCONEmic Living for an extensive list of Father’s Day deals!

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

As I sit here trying to wrap up my day and prepare for tomorrow, I have “The Next Food Network Star” on in the background and I heard one of the contestants utter this quote. As someone who believes strongly in pursuing your passions, I love hearing others who are willing to do whatever it takes to follow your dreams.

After all, why tell kids they can be anything that want to be if we don’t believe it for ourselves?

Kariss’ Tooth

We had the distinct privilege of traveling to Atlanta this past weekend. ( I love that we’re now within driving distance of so many of our friends so we can do fun things like making a day trip for a birthday party!) We attended the dual birthday party of the Gurkin boys (they both share a birthday, but 2 years apart) and also were able to spend some time with other Florida friends who have also made the move north – The Whaples. While we didn’t get to spend a great deal of time there, it was so much fun to recharge and renew those relationships!

The drama began late Monday morning when we were finishing a tour of 12 Stone Church (which is one of the most well thought out churches -from a building and efficiency perspective – that we’ve ever seen). We didn’t see what happened, but all of a sudden I see Ricky rushing towards me with Kariss in his arms and blood gushing out of her mouth. She had a knot on her forehead and we couldn’t tell if it was a mouth, tooth or gum injury causing the blood flood (in fact, it was a combination of the three). It took about an hour to get her to settle down and stop the blood from flowing. She wouldn’t move the towels from her mouth, so we never really did get to see what had happened that day. We called our friend’s dentist, who said we should be fine driving back to Nashville and seeing our dentist here, so that’s what we did this morning.

We started at the dentist at 8am this morning. After much difficulty just getting her into the chair, we explained what happened in Atlanta to the assistant. She tried taking films, but the large bit they tried putting in her mouth made her gag multiple times. So then she switched to a smaller bit, but couldn’t get the picture of the tooth they wanted. They then had her sit on top of me in the chair so I could hold the large bit in her mouth, but that just made her throw up on both of us, literally. The dentist finally came in, looked her over thoroughly, examined the films we took and then told us that she actually fractured her front right tooth (and chipped the tooth next to it, which we somehow failed to notice). The tooth is now lower than her other front tooth and the gums are very bruised/discolored, so they put her on antibiotics and we made an appt for two weeks from today. If the tooth drops further or continues to change color, we’ll have to have it extracted before then. We’re holding out hope that the ligaments will tighten and reattach themselves to the tooth.

Well, that’s the 411 for all of you that were interested in the gory details. At least we don’t have any family portraits coming up soon!

No humidity + no hurricanes = heaven on earth for Sami

It’s June, right?

I was actually cold yesterday! And today it’s in the 60’s, sunny, and no humidity! I cannot tell you thrilled I am that not only am I missing out on the start of hurricane season in Florida, but that I’m able to voluntarily sit outside in the middle of June without sweating! Ah, Nashville, you never stop wooing me!

Kid quotes

Kariss, “Britton, you better come get me!”

Britton, “Oh my! I better go scare her!”

Candy Coupons

“Do you have coupons for candy? Do we get to buy some?”

I just received my coupons for free chocolate from the Mars “Real Chocolate Relief Act” promotion (click here to find out how to get yours!), and Britton saw me clipping them when he said the above quote.

Is it sad that my kids know we only get sweets when we have a coupon?