Mundane Monday

I have not written a Mundane Monday post in FOREVER!!! It is way long over due. So as we all know, Monday's have this "stigma" that we have created and just allowed to influence us. But it doesn't have to.

Courageous, What Does it Mean?

As most of you are aware (as even I am and we don't own a TV....thanks Facebook for making sure we know what is going on in the world!), there are a lot of things going on in this world lately. First we have the Duggar "scandal" and I won't go into too much of my opinion on the matter because there are just so many sides to it and there have been many articles written by amazing theologians and pastors that do a way better job at explaining things than I ever could. I will say though that we are all sinners. Of course what he did was horrific and awful and I feel sickened for the poor victims. I do not have a "side" on which I stand.

Another Home in this Temporary HomeAfter

We moved to Pontiac in September 2014, but I never did a post about our temporary home on this temporary home. :) So here are some pictures from our latest place. :)

Our dining room and kitchen area when we just moved in and hadn't decorated yet. I was nervous about the carpet, but it hasn't been too much of an issue and I'd much rather vacuum than sweep actually. lol

Part of our living room.

More of the living room. I love our view of the woods. SO gorgeous!

Because we moved in the fall, here are my skimpy but I think cute fall decorations. :P

An "after" of our bedroom

Blurry picture, but here is the boys room. It looks much different now, but I think I am going to rearrange it to look like this again because I liked this set up. 

I LOVE our large closets!!

I have a laundry room now!!!

After decorating

I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of our home. I absolutely love looking at pictures of people's homes so I thought I would share some of ours. :)

4 FREAKIN YEARS (husband hacked blog)

I wanted a chance to reflect myself…. and since I have no appropriate place to do this…. I hacked this blog.

Today it has been 4 years of marriage…. 4 FREAKIN YEARS! and you know, it doesn't seem like that long at all! Time really flies when you marry your best friend. As I think back and reflect on that, a few thoughts come to mind that I wanted to share.

First and foremost I can almost hear people saying “yeah it’s only been 4 years….” 

but what allows me to write with such confidence and put this out there is this, from the beginning Britt and I saw further than 4 years…we saw until the end of life (which for me happens when I am 103 and Britt and I are both doing something stupid, I am sure I talked her into). We did then we sure as heck do now! 

4 years is nothing compared to our lives, which we merged under complete understanding that there is no turning back…. better (Britt) or worse (me). It is that constant vision of truly knowing that a God based marriage carries through all…  

I would like to pause to say notice above what I have not said is it has been 4 years of marriage bliss…. a continual ongoing odling of each other… It has not been a cakewalk these last 1461 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes and 31 seconds… it has been a marriage, and that’s my understanding of what marriage is… work, for the betterment of the other and beyond that for the others watching and the glory of God.

OK…..Going back to my thoughts,

Another thought I have had is boy how time silences neigh-sayers….

A quick synopsis of our marriage (much broader and open content can be found on this blog site): Britt found out I had a thing for her on Thanksgiving Eve 2010. We had our first date Dec. 4th 2010. And we were married Feb 11th 2011… That’s fast most people would say. Again, 4 years later and I don’t hear them much if at all anymore….

I recall telling Britt wisdom I heard from a leader I look up to Holger Spiewak.

I said “Britt a big speaker told me once that those who care don’t matter… and those who matter don’t care” (This was in reference to an age difference he and his wife Lindsay who are still also happily married). I remember thinking at the time and having a  “yeah we’ll show them” attitude but as stated time passed... I have learned that we didn't have to show anyone anything and we've had nothing to prove yet our love and God's grace has been proved through us which is a blessing (and to be frank can feel like a curse since the most people seem to learn is from the pain we created). I no longer feel that urge to say see told ya and in fact feel a little arrogant and naive that I ever once thought that. There’s no need, in the end we have prevailed through God’s grace, it’s already a foregone conclusion….

Well dang that's all serious n stuff... Here’s some fun facts about something I tell everyone. We've been married for 4 years and Britt's been pregnant the whole time (another sign of a happy and healthy marriage ;).... or after sign…. you get the idea)

Anyway I thought it would be fun to look up and share the following

Out of our 4 years of marriage Britt has been pregnant:

Once During New Year

Once During Valentines Day

Once During Christmas Eve and Christmas

Twice During Halloween

Twice During Veterans Day

Twice During Halloween

Twice During Thanksgiving

And for THREE out of our FOUR Years Together Britt has been Pregnant on:

Easter

Mothers Day

Memorial Day

Fathers Day

Independence Day

Labor Day

That’s a lot of being pregnant at parades!

So now on to our wonderful evening! And how are we spending that evening you might ask? 

Unclogging a toilet…. together :) <3 span="">

-johnny

Baby Number 3: Titus's Birth Story

I had been having what most call "false labor" signs for a good month or more. I'd have lots of menstrual type cramps that were really bad, my body would start severely cleaning itself out, I'd have braxton hicks, etc. It was actually getting frustrating because I wish it would just make up it's mind! lol But I had to keep telling myself that all of these things were not "false labor" but just really early labor.

425

I wanted to post at least some pictures to introduce Titus Jackson Orion Brines to my blogging followers. :) He was born on Monday, January 19th at 4:51pm (45 minutes after arriving at the hospital...birth story to follow later). Here he is :)

Right after he was born doing some skin to skin

Being weighed and such. Daddy watching over him. :)

No Excuses!

I will use NO EXCUSES for myself. Not having a jogging stroller--not an excuse. Not having someone to watch the kids and having to work around sporadic and often naps--not an excuse. Feeling more exhausted than I think I have in my whole life--not an excuse. Feeling bloated and fighting nausea--not an excuse. Feeling icky emotionally--not an excuse!