Nicole Kerr

Cons:
-She’s in pain
-I let her watch cartoons on TV
-The house doesn’t see much cleaning
-I’ve encountered spiders everyday this week
-I’ve contemplated allowing my daughter to play with insects/bugs outside so she won’t be afraid of them 🐞🐜🐛
-We’ve almost run out of Magic Bubble potion

Pros:
-She’s extra snuggly
-Reading “Are you my Mother?” has a limit of once per day
-Smoothies are a regular on the menu
-Children’s Advil is like manna
-Watching SportsNation on ESPN could become a regular event
-I’ve been able to modify my reaction to spiders so I don’t scare my daughter & make her cry (quite the skill)
-She swings everyday (when it’s not cold outside)
-I found a tumblr app!!!

This is quite possibly the recipe for healing! We’ll see! I wouldn’t trade my life for anything and I am very thankful for my husband! He is a GREAT Daddy!!!

My alarm goes off at 6:15 this morning, I roll over hit snooze to catch five more minutes of sleep before I need to get up and get ready for my class at Creighton.  It’s the last day I have to wake up and be at Creighton by 7:30am for my Weight Training class for this semester.  Finals are next week!  Yeah!  I’m just as excited for finals as my students!  

Before I step out of bed, I check my emails on my iPhone.  For some reason I do this in the morning, as if there’s something urgent enough that I need to read before my foot hits the floor to get out of bed.  That has yet to happen!  An email that I came across was in my gmail account.  It’s an account I don’t use too often but I do check it.  The email was from the library.  ”Why are they sending me a notification email?”  I think to myself.  I scroll down and see it’s for my daughter, she has a late book.  Keep in mind she’s not even one and a half!  I HATE late fines!  I’m passion about it, just ask my husband.  So, she has a late book.  Good thing her account can’t accrue late charges, whew, I was relieved but still surprised that it didn’t get dropped off with the other stacks of books we checked out for her.  No big deal, I’ll just go look in her toy box. Sure enough, there it was, “I Spy Little Toys” by Jean Marzollo.  

As I’m getting ready for work, I think back to the thoughts I had when I scrolled down in that email and saw my daughter’s name.  Her dad and I agreed upon that name when we found out we had a baby girl (in the operating room, c-section).  Granted we just had one girl name picked out.  As I read her name, a sense of motherly pride came over me.  She’s my (our) daughter!  She depends on me (us).  She belongs to me (us), not in a thing or a piece of property kind of way, but she belongs to us.  God gave her to us to raise and to love.  We’ve also given her back to the Lord.  She’s His and has been dedicated to our loving Father.  It says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  A sense of joy overcame me.  She is my (our) legacy, our offspring.  As I was pondering how great it is to be my daughter’s mother, the Lord whispered to me, “I feel that same way when I see your name too.”  Wow, a God moment!  I’ve been given a little glimpse of the Father’s love for me.  He has that same love for me that I have for my daughter, AND EVEN MORE!!!  What a Great God He is!  Thank you, Jesus, for Your love today!  I just thought I would share that with you all.  Know that our Father in Heaven is a Great God and He loves you…in a radical and personal way!

I’m beginning to think that the book was all a part of God’s way of telling me that He loved me this morning!  Wow!  Bible study at the HUB was A-mazing today too!

So, this revelation has been stirring in my heart/mind this past week.  I wait and listen for the Lord’s leading before I write in my tumblr.  As what usually happens, I try to “talk myself out” of writing it.  I’m not sure why I do that.  I guess I am just second-guessing myself and/or minimizing what is exactly going on in my heart.  So, here is goes.  (My sister, Julie, is to thank for this one because I probably wouldn’t have posted it if she didn’t ask about when my next blog was coming.)

My husband, Andrew (of 3 plus years and many more to come) and I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve.   I think have “seen” that movie about 30 times, at least once a year. This year was the first time I really really really “saw” it. I understand now why it was so important that George Bailey was able to see what life was like had he not been born.  I had thought he didn’t want to live because he didn’t want to have the debt of $8,000 to pay back.  This was his way to avoid paying it back, or so I thought.  What I “saw” this year when I watched it was that he was given the opportunity to see the many lives that would not have been affected for the good had he not been born.  It covered his entire life span.  It started from when he was a kid and saved his brother from downing and then his brother went on to do great things in the war.  From his first job when he saved the pharmacist from poisoning another child by giving the wrong drug.  George then was able to see what life would have been like for that pharmacist had he not been there to help him make the correction.  The pharmacist owed his life to George.  Every single person in that town was impacted by George Bailey because he chose to speak up and make a difference.  George was a life-giver!  He gave people chances and it encouraged others to make a difference.  This was especially seen at the end when everyone he had touched came back to “give back” to him in his time of need.  This caused me to think about my life and the “everyday” people I encounter.  Am I speaking up and using my voice to encourage others.  Am I choosing to see the good in others.  Am I too focused on my life and what’s going on in my world that I can’t even “see” what’s going on in the world of the person I come across everyday.  I know sometimes I get it and I know I’m doing what the Lord has created me to do.  Other times, I feel like I’m rushed and the excuse of “being busy” is the first thought that comes to mind.  The Lord has given me the Spiritual Gift of Encouragement and I feel the Father’s love when I encourage others.  George Bailey was busy, he had dreams to travel the world and “do” something with his life.  He chose to make the small, everyday changes and in that he impacted everyone around him.  I can say that this life the Lord has given me truly is wonderful.  I have many blessings and reasons to be thankful.  The take away I got after watching the movie is to slow down, allow time to be “wasted” in encouraging others because in that it’s not wasted and I am living life the way the Lord intended for me.  This life of mine is truly a wonderful life.  I’m so glad we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  It took me 30 plus times of watching it to really see it and apply it to my life.

I love having a little girl.  My husband and I chose to wait to find out the sex of our baby until the delivery room.  Lillian has brought so much joy into our lives.  I remember a lady at one of my baby showers telling me, “It always gets better!” as in, enjoy every step and don’t stress out too much with the small stuff because as baby grows it will get better.  

Lillian is 9 months and that statement is very true.  She’s growing a lot quicker than I thought she would.  She’s just so much fun.  I love when she gets excited and wraps her tiny arms around my neck.  They don’t quite touch but she holds on with all her might.  It’s her sense of security, knowing she can hang onto her mamma!  Another favorite (one of many) is the feel of her long eyelashes on my cheek as I sneak in to give her a kiss.  Because she’s so active, she always looking around and when I’m holding her and she turns her head, I can feel her long beautiful eyelashes.  It’s a sweet, gentle feeling.  I love that we can love on and be a blessing to this little girl that the Lord has entrusted to us.  There are many little girls in this world who are not loved and cared for just because they are girls.  That hurts my heart.  My prayer for Lillian is that she will go further than Andrew and I will ever go.  I speak life and destiny over my baby girl!  The Lord has a purpose for her life.  Thank you, Jesus!

Date night tonight!  We’re going to see Chris Botti in concert.  The last time we saw him, which was in December of 2007, Andrew and I talked about getting married!  I was on cloud 9 while we sat there listening to Chris Botti play.  We were also able to meet him following the concert with VIP passes!  Such a great memory!

Andrew and I went on a date and we were able to get front row seats to viewing the hot air balloons.  It was a “Top 10” date with my hubby.  I just love those “Top 10” days with my man.  Lilly was at Grammy and Papa’s house that night.  I would love to ride in a hot air balloon at some point in my lifetime.