Happy Halloween!

Abby Grace- 4 months

Abby Grace turned 4 months old just a few days ago. I can not believe how quickly time is flying. I think those cheeks get chubbier and more kissable each passing day. She is one of the happiest babies I have ever been around. She is super flexible, which is excellent for me, and even sweeter than I could have ever imagined.

She has me and her daddy wrapped around those little fingers.

I am so looking forward to the coming months- she is noticing EA more and more. She is smiling and laughing as EA interacts with her and I can not wait for them to be best friends.

Likes: Being around people, wiggling, cooing, and smiling

Dislikes: Waiting for her food when she is hungry

Basic Stats: At your 4 month appt, you were 24 1/2 in. long (80th percentile) and weighed 13 lbs. 8 oz. (50th percentile). You wear size 2 diapers and 3 month and 3-6 month clothes. You are eating 5 times a day, about every 3.5 hours. You refuse to eat more than 4 ounces in the morning, but slowly take more as the day goes by. Eating is not your top priority... you would much rather watch what's going on around you. You are getting to be a much better napper... you nap for at least 1-1.5 hr in the morning and about 2 hr. in the afternoon, not including the catnaps you take throughout the day. You go to bed between 8:30 and 10:00 (ha!) most nights and wake up at about 7:30 most mornings.

We love you Abby Grace! We are so thankful you are in our little family!

30 Before 30- An Update

Today is my 28th birthday. I will celebrate it with all sorts of good things, including birthday cake, farmer's markets, and train rides at the zoo.
In celebration of the day, I want to take a quick look at my 30 Before 30 List.... Only two years left!

1. 

Have at least one more child.

Abby Grace Johnson- 4/16/13

2.

Begin building a house on our land.

3.

Become a mini-van mom. 

4.

Find a way to make just a little money on a consistent basis.
I've decided that this is a hard item to measure... The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, so though I can't name a consistent way I have earned money, He has provided consistently. He is so faithful!

5.

Go on at least one international mission trip.

6.

Teach Sunday School.
Beginning 8/19/12

7.

Learn to coupon.

8.

Go on at least one vacation with just Brian.

9.

Go on at least 3 vacations (big or small) with our immediate family.
#1- The Grand, 9/14-15/12

10.

Find a way to serve Jesus outside the church. 

11.

Find a way to serve and love on our church staff and nursery workers.

12.

Organize fun activities to do during the day with my children. 

13.

Make curtains for our living room/ dining room.
I have reworked this idea a little- I have purchased curtains and plan to paint them as soon as I have a few spare minutes. 

14.

Take a photography class or attend a photography conference.

15.

Go to a Auburn football game with my hubby and children- not just tailgate but go to the game.

16.

Go to a Braves Baseball game.

17.

Run in a 5K.
The Color Run 2012!

18.

Plant hydrangeas in my yard and keep them alive.

19.

Take a Zumba class.
5/28/13

20.

Take a good picture of a cow.

11/13/12

21.

Learn how to drive a stick shift.

22.

Refinish one piece of older furniture.

23.

Organize our photos.

24.

Disciple someone.
I have actually been doing this for awhile now- thanks Kelsey for the chance to spend time together on a semi-regular basis.

25.

Disciple one engaged/ newly married couple with Brian.
We have met with a couple a few times, but have struggled with schedules too much to call this true discipleship. Still hoping for improvement here.

26.

Write a note to someone at least once a month.
I haven't had much success with this over the past year but would still love to do this- a sweet word of encouragement can go such a long way!

27.

Go to Harry Potter Land.

28.

Write at least 1 blog post per week.
If you are reading this now, you know this one is a complete joke. Go ahead and mark fail.

29.

Update my "blog look."

30.

Love Jesus and serve others!

We have several plans in the works before the end of the year so I am looking forward to marking a few things off the list soon!
Have a stupendous day my friends!

Happy 4th of July!

Excess

Several months ago, one of my faves started talking about The 7 Experiment by Jen Hatmaker. 

She told me about this woman who determined areas of excess in her life and fasted from those areas to be more like Christ. She was excited to start reading the book and the concept certainly seemed interesting, if not completely foreign, not only to me, but to America as a whole.

I listened to her pre-summary, then walked away thinking, "That's not me. Not only is my life okay, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give up some of these pieces of daily life that this book is going to call me to."

She read the book and began sharing with me the burden God put in her heart for the poor, lowly, and deprived people, not only in this country, but throughout the world. She talked about what God taught her and convicted her of through 7 and I was intrigued,  but still couldn't help but think- "She's more Godly than me and is so much further along in how we are truly supposed to love others. This isn't the book for me. I'm just not there yet."

Then Granny died and I saw the body of Christ at work in an awesome, comforting, and real way. I saw that many of past my responses to hurt or death had not mirrored this perfect grace God has shown me and my family. 

Then we had probably the thousandth conversation about our budget and how much of our money is spent on things we never see.

Then we cleaned out for EA's big girl room and threw/ gave away tons of stuff. More stuff than we ever or could need. Hundreds of dollars of items that have sat in a room for 4+ years and been useless.

Then we spent several days barely speaking to each other, not because we were angry or fighting, but because we couldn't seem to put down our phones with Twitter or Pinterest or Instagram long enough to look each other in the face and have a conversation.

Then we had another conversation about our health and the junk we put in our body under the rouge of time saving or fellowship or simple cravings to have something "different" to eat or to just get out of the house.

Then I completely stressed out over our schedule, which I set, because it was too full and didn't allow time for me to spend with my sweet child or for us to spend with each other.

And I realized- God was prepping me for a change. The timeliness of this response from my friend and these "outside" elements were not an accident.

Because as a believer in Jesus Christ, each of these things matter:

-How we care for others, both known and unknown, Americans and Internationals. 

-How we spend our money

-How we hold on to the things of this world

-How we invest in things unseen rather than the relationships that are necessary for spreading the Gospel

-How our bodies are a Temple of the Holy Spirit, not just a waste zone for the latest cravings

-How we are called to rest and to focus on God and our families through the Sabbath

So I caved and I read the book.

And I must say, it was excellent. 

As an avid blog reader, I adored her "blog" format. I found myself rolling on the floor with laughter in one section and completely convicted in the next. It was the perfect mix for a girl who could not finish a non-fiction book if her life depended on it.

But though I was convicted and brimming to change, I was still unsure how this was going to look for the Johnson's. The couple who are desperately trying to live on a budget, pregnant with gestational diabetes, way over extended in commitments that are truly commitments, not just one week deals, and about to squeeze another big change into their lives in about 10 weeks. How on earth do we make these changes when so much of our life in planned and ingrained by our habits?

Honestly, the timing and facts of the next few steps is kind of fuzzy, but somehow, I ended up with The 7 Experiment: Staging Your Own Mutiny Against Excess. Not only is this the original 7 in Bible study format, it also includes each of the 7 fasts, at 5 days a piece.

Perfect. 

What an excellent way to begin refocusing, to see which parts of these truly need change in our lives, and to see what God has in store. 

I am pumped.

I will officially begin the Bible study tomorrow with a group of about 12-15 women from our church, including homegirl who started this whole charade months ago,  and it's going to be awesome.

^1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

^7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Ephesians 2:1-20 The Message (Emphasis by me :) )

I know that right now I am still letting "that old stagnant life of sin" creep in, but I am excited and ready for change, because He has work ready for us to do and we would be useless not to do it.

28 weeks

Yesterday, I was officially 28 weeks pregnant. 

That's third trimester folks.

To say that this pregnancy has gone by quickly would be the understatement of the year- it is *flying.* Who has time to focus on being pregnant when #1 is walking around looking cute and saying "peese?" and "ble chu" and throwing toys all.over.the.place. all the time? 

But all that said, I am coming to the startling realization that in less than 3 months, Lord willing, we will be a family of four and I will want just a little something to document the 9+ months I have spent with this precious angel in my womb. So this won't be frequent and it certainly won't be weekly, seeing as this is my first blog post in a month, but here it is- pregnancy update for #2!

How far along? 28 weeks, 1 day

Baby Bump? Yup. Thankfully, I am finally past the "wow, she's gained weight" stage and into the "aw, you're pregnant" stage. 

Maternity clothes? At this point, just jeans, but my shirts are getting kind of short and I am working with a closet of maybe 6 options, so that probably won't last much longer.

Total weight gain: None as of last week. Totally don't understand my pregnancies at all. Non-pregnant Ashley gains weight just thinking about food.

Cravings: Chuy's. Basically, it's been Chuy's since day 1. I haven't had it since the beginning of January, which is driving me crazy... I need that tasty salsa with those light, crunchy chips. I could also go for a piece of cake- preferably chocolate with white icing.

Symptoms: Having to pee in the middle of the night.

Sleep: I have been sleeping great. Last night, the cat took up too much room at the bottom of the bed and considering I have 2 positions I can sleep with, it was a bit of a pain, but overall I have been sleeping fabulously.

Movement: I can usually feel her moving any time I am sitting still. It's not always strong enough for others to feel it, but I love knowing she's dancing around in there!

Gender: We are having another little girl! 

Belly Button in or out? In.

What I miss: A variety of clothes. And clothes shopping. Whether I buy anything or not, I enjoy the ability to go in a store and know I COULD wear the clothes if I wanted. That joy is gone... but alas, it will return.

Best moment this week: I love it when #2 kicks me when I am holding EA. It's like, "Hey mom, I'm here too!! Don't forget me!" 

Also, completely unrelated to my pregnancy, EA is sick, so I have had the awesome blessing of letting her nap on my chest 2 days this week. Love that. Can't wait to do that with her little sister.

Biggest challenge: Those dad-gum toys are going to send me to an early grave... it's much harder picking up the 76 legos or the 6 pieces of stacking rings or the 5000 books than it was 6 months ago.