My Hope

You are righteous

You love justice

and those who honor You

will see Your face.

I will arise

And lift my eyes to see

Your majesty, Your holiness

And all I am will bless You.

My hope is in the name of the Lord,

Where my help comes from.

Your my strength, my song.

My trust is in the name of the Lord.

I will sing your praise,

you are faithful.

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Above are the lyrics to one of my new favorite songs. It has just really spoken to my heart recently. I especially love the line that says, "Your my strength, my song." I feel like as a new mom that I need a lot of strength and singing lately! I am so blessed today that I know where my strength comes from!

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Abigail's sleep continues to improve. Sometimes we have nights where she still wakes twice but she seems much more comfortable than before. She was awake only once last night. She is back to her old self (from 8 weeks to 4 months) when it comes to bedtime. She has been SO fussy the last few weeks when it came to bedtime but last night, I actually laid her in her crib and she fell asleep . . . . no crying, no screaming and NO PACIFIER! I couldn't believe it! She struggled with naps yesterday but we kept running her around and not letting her sleep the way she likes so I don't blame her for being a little cranky!

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I have been thinking about this whole clothes/fashion thing lately. It's not as if I can't dress myself, it just seems like such an effort right now, taking up my energy, time, and money when I don't have extra of any of those things! I have been reading on Proverbs 31 a lot lately and these verses have meant a lot to me. I want to be beautiful without having my whole life focused on the things this world considers beautiful. I don't want to be frumpy or a martyr (at all). So finding that balance is my challenge!

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Prov 31: 25, 26, 27 - She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Prov 31:30 - Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Fashion Advice

I finally decided it would make sense to actually show you all what the clothes I bought look like . . . before I take them back. So, here are the clothes that Andrew said make me look like an old lady.

The second one fits better, I think. Anyway, his advice to me was to wear dark solid colors. Then when I wore all black on Sunday and then said I was hot, he said, "Well, why did you wear all black?" I don't understand men!




Speaking of: Here is a picture of my hard working man. He is working on some websites for his old company in the evenings.

And, of course, I can't put pictures on a blog without posting one of our darling. I have some funny pictures taken of ways that she sleeps but I'll do those another time.

She was on the changing table getting ready for the day! Smiles at 6 am! Amazing!

And the last post leads me to a new blog . . .

I found a bunch of great blogs yesterday. This one is a lady who helps other people look good. I NEED her! Anyway, I'm just going to read the blog for a while and hope that it all soaks in!

http://sharibraendel.blogspot.com/

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Sleep update:
Last night - 6/23/2008
7 pm - started bedtime routine
7:20 pm - Nursing (cranky, fussy, squirmy and didn't eat much)
7:30 pm - Down in crib (cranky, fussy, squirmy, and CRYING)
I patted her occasionally while putting away clothes in her room.
8:00 pm - Still crying so I rocked her - very drowsy
8:10 pm - down in crib - suddenly awake again and crying
8:15 pm - rocking again and back down - calm but rolling around in crib so I left to work in my bedroom
8:20 pm - I heard her SCREAM from my room while I was folding clothes.
8:21 pm - Crying, screaming and sobbing, so I rocked her with a paci
8:30 pm - She actually fell asleep on me (very rare) and I managed to transfer her calmly to her crib.
11:30 pm - Awake and making noise (no crying really) so I fed her.
2:30 am - Awake and restless - I did not want to get her used to me feeding her all night long, so I tried the paci in her crib but she wouldn't settle down, so I rocked her. She fell asleep and I put her down. 2 minutes later, awake again! Ah! I am wishing that I could wake Andrew to do this, since it doesn't involve feeding, but he has such a difficult time sleeping anyway. Rocked and comforted for 30 minutes. Laid her back down. Finally at 3:00 am I head back to bed, lay on top of the covers with my glasses on because I fully expect to get up in 5 minutes. She (and I) slept until 6 am.

Teeth? I don't know.
Itchy rash? I don't know.
Crazy/sweet baby trying to make her mom go insane? yes!

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I know she could be SOOOO much worse. The problem is is that I am so spoiled by only getting up once a night! It also makes a HUGE difference when Andrew is home in the evening, even when he doesn't do anything to help put her to sleep. It's amazing how much better I feel just knowing I have backup! He was at Bible study last night.