Merry Christmas

Thanks Lindsay Carole (lindsaycarolephotography.com) for the great pics(=

Almost 7 months have passed since we welcomed Samuel into our family. He is a sweet social butterfly who has enriched our lives. Samuel is almost crawling and loves to munch on anything he can grab. Joe is still working hard in school, church and too many other things to list. 

He will be venturing on his first global missions trip to Panama this coming February. 

Bethany is blessed to be home with Samuel and growing her home business selling Norwex products. She will be graduating with her associates degree this March.

Duke just joined the family. 

He is a “hypo-allergenic” ball of energy.

We are enormously blessed to have so many friends and family in our lives.

You are all loved and appreciated.

In Christ’s Love,

Joseph, Bethany, Samuel and Duke Savery

6 Months and Growing

Samuel can sit up now

He loves to do anything we are doing

helping daddy fill the ducky bath tub

Samuel is also very flexible and a little chunky 

Don't Blink

So not too long ago we brought home a sweet little baby boy. Then this morning I blinked...Samuel turned 6 months old today!

Samuel loves to spend time with his best friend Noelle

He always looks like he's deep in thought

He loves bananas 

He is such a comedian 

Happy 6 months!!!

Thankful

Psalm 31:19 
How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you

While I sit here in my warm house, listening to Christmas music, watching the snow fall peacefully to the ground, I feel overwhelmingly blessed. 

A Photo Diary of the Last Few Weeks:

Blessed to be the wife of a dedicated, loving husband and father

Blessed to have Samuel in my life

and to get to spend everyday with him

Blessed with good memories 

and the reality of new ones 

Blessed with an abundance of family

and a treasure chest of friends

Blessed with the food we eat

and the fun we have

yep, lots of fun!!!

Blessed that this was our car

Not this one

Blessed that, that was then

and this is now

James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 

Wonders

I live an immensely privileged life. God has given me unfathomable wealth. Though my wealth has no monetary worth, my heart is full of unending eternal blessings.

The greatest blessing in my life, Samuel will be 5 months old tomorrow. He is a courageous, care free, smiling,laughing, torpedo of energy. And God has used him to teach me more than I ever imagined I was capable of learning. (These all have funny or serious stories behind them, but it would take too many blogs to tell them all)

Lessons from Samuel:

Children are a blessing that cant be described in mere words
Family/friendship are more important
Babies grow fast, reminding me life is so short
Smile everyday, even if your sick or mad
Give everyone a hug and smile, even if you don't know them very well, or at all
Just because no one understands what you are saying doesn't mean you shouldn't talk
Even when you jump from Daddy's(or mommy's) arms, he will catch you and comfort you
Poop is really not all that bad, especially when the room is quiet and you need to break the silence
Crawling and walking aren't the only ways to move
Clothing is a necessary evil designed to make parents feel they are torturing their children
Even if you don't like car seats, they are a HUGE blessing
You can never jump to much because jumping is so cool
It is possible to smile so much you cry

These blessings are the wonders of our great and mighty heavenly Father. Even when things seem bleak, dangerous or impossible God's wonders are waiting for us to open our eyes. This past year many of his wonders have come in lessons that were very difficult for me to learn. But I am blessed to have experienced them.

Job 37:14 "Listen to this Job, stop and consider God's wonders"
God's wonders were not prosperous times, or ease of life, they were speaking of God's creation and grace.

Have you stopped and considered God's wonders?

Shopping with Samuel

Samuel is learning in leaps and bounds. Everyday he discovers something new and does something entertaining. This week Samuel started to notice the texture of things around him. He wants to touch everything! Gone are the days of eating dinner with Samuel sitting on my lap, because he wants to eat what we are eating. He wants to touch the computer keys and the buttons on my cell phone. By the way if you have gotten any strange texts with major spelling errors from me lately, thats why.

Today we were looking at baby toys. I found a cute blue elephant and pulled it down from the shelf. Samuel grabbed it from my hand and shoved it in his mouth. Covering it with thick drool... Needless to say we purchased the elephant.

The poor cashier at the register had a strange confused look on his face when he picked up the dripping toy. 

Rest

Samuel is 4months and 1 week old this week. I never could have imagined how amazing it is to be a mother. Children really are a wonderful treasure.

Samuel groggy after his restful night of sleep

Something else I never expected...exahustion. Along with the sweetness of motherhood comes countless sleepless nights(and days). Samuel is not a "good sleeper", he never has been. But this morning I woke up at 6:30 am. Thats right, Samuel went to sleep at 10:30 pm and woke up at 6:30 am!!! I couldn't believe it! I feel revived, a new woman!

The last 3 weeks Samuel has only slept in 1-2 hours increments. It has been trying, and my mood and patient have fell victim to my tiredness. I felt as exhausted as I did when I was pregnant and only sleeping 45mins at a time. I feel immensely blessed to have finally slept 8hours all at once for the first time since last April.

So will it last, or did God just know I needed to sleep at some point before I cracked? Im hoping its a permeant combination. Even though he seldom naps, Samuel is currently asleep. Maybe this is the start of something new!

 Mark 6 tells the story of when Jesus fed 5,000 + people with 2 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Mark 6:31 says:

 ³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

As a mom I often am so busy carrying for others I cant eat or sleep or even shower or brush my teeth. But as with the disciple, such times are nessicary for the good of others. Im so blessed to know God does eventually provide time of rest. 

Vingar Sheets

I love co-sleeping. Its the only way Samuel and I for more than 2hours. Im so blessed to spend nights cuddling with our precious gift from God.

Of coursing nothing is without its downers. Samuel is a BIG POOOPER...I mean massive pooooooper. He has "pooslosions" or "pabooms" on a daily basis. Sometimes we wake up and we are laying in a "paboom". A few nights ago we found ourselves in this situation. I get up, wash Samuel/clothing/my self/ sheets. But the bed still reeked(and yes there were two blankets and a waterproof pad underneath us...still got the bed).

I've been using vinegar in a lot of my household cleaning. Its natural, cheep and works great for wood floors. Even though it smells when you put it on, it drys odarless.

On the wood floors that is. I sprayed the matress foam topper with vinagr and water, thinking it would stink but eventually dry and the smell would go away. Well, that was four days ago and Ive been sleeping in a salad ever since.
Now to the big question...anyone have a cure for salad bed??????? Please im desperate......

Acts 2

Every Wednesday morning I get up and drag Samuel out of bed (he goes to bed late and sleeps in late). We haul our tired selves to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). And its there that Samuel will actually go into the nursery with people he doesn't know for more than 10 minutes. I truly believe God wants me to be at BSF, and in my small group. I have and am currently learning so much from this group!

Tonight I read Acts 2. I have read this passage so many times, but I never studied it like this. No commentary, just the Bible. This is what I discovered;

God gave people the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues so they could unite and communicate.
            -they were uniting as one body of believers so they would be powerful to communicate
            -they needed to communicate the message of Christ to the rest of the world
I cant believe I have missed this. I have let what I was taught about the Bible become more important than what the Bible actually says. God uses the gift of tongues to speak to His people and to allow them to understand things they would not be able to.

Lord,
Let me have the gift of tongues so I can understand/relate to/and communicate with fellow believers. Fill us with your spirit so we may share your love and the good news of Christ with this starving world. And teach me to esteem the truth of Your word above the ideas of man.

Acts 2: 1-13

Acts 2

The Day of Pentecost

 ¹ When ^(A)the day of Pentecost ^[a]had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled ^(B)the whole house where they were sitting. ³ And there appeared to them tongues as of fire ^[b]distributing themselves, and ^[c]they ^[d]rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all ^(C)filled with the Holy Spirit and began to ^(D)speak with other ^[e]tongues, as the Spirit was giving them^[f]utterance.

 ⁵ Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, ^(E)devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶And when ^(F)this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own ^[g]language. ^7 (G)They were amazed and astonished, saying, “^[h]Why, are not all these who are speaking ^(H)Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we each hear them in our own ^[i]language ^[j]to which we were born? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and ^(I)Cappadocia, ^(J)Pontus and^[k](K)Asia, ^10 (L)Phrygia and ^(M)Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around ^(N)Cyrene, and ^[l](O)visitors from Rome, both Jews and ^[m](P)proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” ¹² And ^(Q)they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others were mocking and saying, “^(R)They are full of ^[n]sweet wine.”

Saving with the Saverys

I love being a stay-at-home mom. In the past four months I have experienced the greatest joys coupled with the most fearsome challenges of my life thus far. I know there are many more coming my way.
Im so excited to face them with my family!

My current challenge is to find ways to save money so I can continue to live my dream at home with my son...and our 4 legged children.
Two weeks ago we ventured into the word of cloth diapers, a quest that will save us almost $40 a month!!!! Its been an interesting couple of weeks.

The first lesson I learned, make sure the diaper is on right before going to bed. Samuel and I woke up in a swamp after the first night.

Lesson number 2, make sure the diaper is not to big. Poo has a way of spewing out the sides even in public.

Lesson number 3, don't forget to bring extra diapers with you. Cloth diapers get wet faster than disposables.

All in all, I would say our $40 craigslist investment has paid off thus far. But don't be surprised if you see Samuel sporting a disposable diaper from time to time. 

Belly Bag

I went back and re-read all of my blog posts...Wow Im super serious online. That JUST WONT DO...

Just in case you werent around me when I was pregnant, im not a fan. Its super hard!!! And I swelled up like a jinormus balloon. I had to get a bigger purse just to anchor me down...Almost floated away a few times!
Now here I am a mom of 6weeks. The swelling is mostly gone. But that doesnt mean all is back to normal. Besides all the wierd inside things that your body does after its had a baby(my fellow moms know what I mean), I have the wonderful belly bag just hangin out.
And its really hangin...alot.....like a whole bunch!!!! I do sit ups and go running....still there! It wouldn't be so bad if it were useful. Its not big enough to rest anything on but its not small enough to be cute.
Here it sits, the postnatal belly bag. One of the many after shocks of pregnancy.
So im starting a postnatal belly bag support group. Like this post if you want to join(=

Hope this gave you a good laugh today!!!!

Mom Daze....

June 2, 2011...3:13pm he finally came. Our 6 lb. 1 oz, 18 1/2 inch boy. He is a completely perfect treasure.

Samuel Joseph Savery was 3 weeks early by the doctors count, but he came right when God intended him to.
Now we are learning to be parents... This is by far the biggest challenge of my life. Joe is a wonderful father. He works all day (and part of the night) then comes home and lovingly cuddles/cares for his son. He is a natural parent, easing into his role.
I only wish I could find this natural ease to my motherly duties. After Samuel was born, I felt, like most new mothers, confused and completely unsure of myself. I had no clue how to care for this tinny little human being that was totally dependent on me! I have spent the last three weeks learning what is means to be a mom. Sleepless nights, tears, and no time to do anything. But it also means joy beyond words, growing closer to my husband, and seeing God work in ways i have never thought possible. I know the next 18+ years will present even more challenges that I am not ready to face. But God is ready. I take complete comfort in knowing his perfect plan brought us Samuel.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5