What we've been up to...

We've recently had some great family times I wanted to share! A few weeks ago we went with some friends to lake LBJ for the weekend. We have been trying to all get together to do this for a few years, so I'm so glad it finally happened! We enjoyed some good boat time:

The trip just wouldn't have been complete without making a few waves. Here's Andy being a showoff:

We had such a great time with these sweet friends and look forward to the coming years of returning to the lake together with our growing families! We love you guys!

This past weekend we also got lucky enough to snag some tickets to the TCU game at Cowboy Stadium from our good friends at PlainsCapital Bank. We had never done football quite like this before: in an owner's box with nice leather seats, free open bar and buffet (with delicious mac and cheese- I had seconds) and a personal attendant there to clean up after you. My favorite things about it included the comfy seating, the easy access to a restroom (hello, I'm 9 months pregnant here), the free food and drink, the close seats (I hardly needed my glasses), but most of all, the lack of drunk college boys there to ruin my good time. The only downside to doing football the yuppy way: no nachos. :(

Way to go Frogs! Thanks for the close game and for kicking it at the end so it was a complete victory! Ra-ra-TCU!

Family Fun in the Sun!

Andy has been shamelessly begging for a kiddie pool. So, as a means of motivation, I promised him that once he painted the nursery we would get a kiddie pool. He got right to it- do I know my husband or what? I don't know who loved the kiddie pool more, Andy or Berkley...

I got this video of Berkley's first time getting in the pool. I love it!

Over this particular weekend we were dogsitting for some friends. This is Reeses! He much preferred dry land inside the kiddie pool

and beer!

Berkley's allergies started acting up with all the water and grass, so Andy scratched at his face for him. What a sweetie!

 

I did try getting in the pool for a little while. I'm not a big water person. It lasted about 5 minutes. Berkley's favorite thing was to jump in the pool, then out, then in, then out. Grass was collecting in the water and I was getting spashed at each time, so I dried off and finished the evening in a nice chair with just my feet in the pool- so much more relaxing!

This was a game that Andy started playing with Berkley. They did it over and over and over, neither one getting bored. They have so much fun together and I love watching it! 

This is one happy and exhausted dog! Little did he know he was in for a bath before heading back in the house.

We ended this wonderful evening with some T-bone steaks from CM, corn on the cob, and Sister Schubert's delicious rolls. It was a wonderful summer evening memory that will always bring a great big smile to my face! I love being in our family!

Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney

I picked this book up at Austin Stone when I was with my mom and told her we should read it together. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as she is recently married and I'm preparing to become a mother. Once we both got the book, we noticed there were lots of discussion questions in the back for each chapter. This would be an easy book to read through and think, "Yes, yes, I know I should do better at that," before moving on to something else. There is so much more here!

Carolyn is an experienced wife and mother, a follower of Jesus Christ, and an easy woman to listen to. In this particular book, she expounds on Titus 2.3-5: "Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Each chapter of the book then goes through one of the characteristics listed. It reveals the sins that prevent those godly attitudes and gives practical ways to effectively accomplish (or work toward) those wonderful traits. But like I said, reading through it probably won't thoroughly convict you or encourage you in your pursuit as a wife or mother.

Journaling through the questions at the end of each chapter through prayer is what made this book so powerful to provoke change in my heart and attitude. My mom and I would read a chapter a week and journal through the questions. We then called each other each Tuesday morning to share our answers with  each other. I highly recommend this book for a group of women to do together, but you can do it with just one other person or even alone. I found that having to say my answers out loud to someone else provided much needed accountability and was a way to receive motivation and encouragement from another person who knows me well.

What I loved most was how involved this book made Andy! It was impossible to go through this book without frank discussion over these topics with my husband. In many of the questions, you are told to ask your husband about these traits. For instance, Chapter Eight (The Beauty of Submission) has this as one of the questions/tasks at the end: "Ask your husband to give you a "grade" in respect. Invite him to share why he gave you the grade that he did. Seek his forgiveness if necessary. Then communicate to him at least one quality you respect about him." How humbling! Needless to say, Andy and I had many honest discussions about how I was doing with each quality which provided lots of challenges and surprising encouragement! (Another good reason for doing it with another woman is that you can't get out of these difficult tasks. The other person is going to ask you what grade your husband gave you and why. You know you will have to give an answer.)

I loved going through this book and each week felt myself being more and more self-aware of what sins were hindering me from being the kind of wife and mother I want to be, the kind that uplifts my family and brings glory to God. Though challenging to face, I also was motivated more than ever to love my family well because it is a main way by which God wants to use me to bring the gospel to life for those around me.

I want to encourage you to not only read this book, but let it reveal the contents of your heart to you. Are you ready to take a good look in the mirror? Don't be afraid of what you might find- all has been redeemed by the cross of Christ!

Roots over Fruits

There's something I want to share today, but I want you to get the full picture, not half of it. So let me start by being honest: I don't prioritize spending time with the Lord. I know, few of us do. But these days, I've run out of the usual excuses. I'm not too busy. I didn't forget. When I have come to spend time in God's Word, I have found myself asleep a half hour later. Was I too tired? No.

I was too uninterested.

So now that that's out there, let me share with you the other half.

Despite these things, there are some days when the Spirit draws me to the Scriptures. That's the only way I can describe it. It's nothing profound, like the parting of the Red Sea. It's just a pulling, sometimes in the form of a simple thought. What's coming next? (I've been working my way through the Bible in a year. I started 4 years ago.) Sometimes the pull is simply in wanting to sit on the couch and read, and for some reason, that day, I'm inclined to read the Bible instead of something else.

These are the days when I read Scripture with intrigue. On these days, I don't find myself asleep a half hour later. And today, it happened early. In fact, it happened in the shower. Don't we all do some good thinking in the shower? What will Paul say next? What chapter am I at?

So I quickly sat down with my next chapter, Romans 12. I study one chapter at a time. Study, not read. So I start by reading the previous chapter to remember what I learned before and to set the stage of context, then I spend the bulk of my time studying the new chapter. (So to my credit, I'm really reading the Bible twice through. No? Ok.)

Romans 12 was a dagger to my hiding heart that wants only my flesh to fight the battle against sin. Because let's be honest, most of us want to look clean. We want to look clean more than we actually want to be clean. Being clean is a dirty job. Looking clean just takes some sweat.

Romans 12 gave me no wiggle room to half-heartedly obey it's commands. Listen to them:

* let love be genuine
* abhor what is evil
* hold fast to what is good
* honor one another
* have a fervent spirit
* rejoice in hope
* be patient in tribulation
* be constant in prayer

Not one can be scheduled into your day. Not one can be done to a degree. Not one can be done only by my body and bootstrap effort. Your love is genuine or it isn't. You are patient or you aren't. You pray constantly or you don't. Behavior modification isn't an option here. How can I change my behavior so that I hate what is evil?

The title of this section of Scripture is called "Marks of the True Christian." That should terrify you. It terrified me. Who can claim to have a heart like this?

Only the One.

So what do we do? Well what can you do? These aren't things you can make happen. These are the heart issues, the roots:

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6.43-45)

Don't spend your time trying to hide the fruit that is being born from your wicked heart. Don't give yourself a checklist trying to defeat the effects of a bad heart. You will fail. And it won't change your heart, which is what God is after in the first place! So again, what can we do? Start here:

-pray with me that the Lord would continually use the Spirit to incline us to the Scriptures
-pray with me that the Lord would change our hearts to be like the One who can claim the marks of a true follower of God
-rest with me in the knowledge that God is faithful to complete what he once began in us

Labor with me in pleading to God for a change of heart. He will do it, for it's His desire for us as well.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15.57-58)

Sweet Mercies of God to Us

I feel like I imagine a chrysalis would. Soon, very soon, every major part of my life will change. It's coming, but it's not here.

1. I've quit my job. All of a sudden I'm home all day, trying to prepare for all the other changes, but there's nothing to prepare yet. What will staying at home look like?

2. We're moving in two weeks. Where? We don't know yet. Again, so much to be done, but we can't do anything until we know where we're moving.

3. Sophia will be here soon. I'm in my fifth month of pregnancy, and we have begun preparing as much as possible, but there's still a lot we can't do yet.

Job, house, family. All about to change. Almost. Not yet. Soon.

So naturally, my mind has been consumed, running through different scenarios, planning all the different possibilities while we wait to know more of what is to come. My thoughts have been out of control. My heart is anxious. I haven't been grounded.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday God reminded me of what is really important. Yesterday these things were shown to be small in the grand scheme of things. Yesterday we nearly died. I wasn't prepared.

Certainly, I wasn't prepared to see a stalled truck directly in front of me going 65 mph down 121. But what I mean is, I wasn't prepared to die. My last thoughts were those of frustration over details completely out of my control. My last conversation with Andy was a petty argument over nothing. My last action was a loud sigh to let him know I wasn't too happy with him. How quickly all that would have changed had I known what was coming next. That, and I would have gotten one lane over. (And enjoyed better food. How's Sonic for a last meal?)

We were surrounded by cars on every side, so there can be one explanation for how I could have skidded across three lanes of highway twice before spinning the car completely, finally coming to a stop facing oncoming cars without hitting a single thing. The Lord performed a miracle, preserving our lives. What a blessed wake up call.

Yes, I've quit my job and am looking now for part-time work. Yes, we're moving very soon and we don't know where. Yes, we're having a baby and all the changes that come along with it.

But...

we're alive

I got to kiss my husband again, say our prayers, and fall asleep next to each other

I got to feel Sophia kick

we had time to repent

we know to be ready

"But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.'" -Luke 12:20

(I would suggest continuing this passage through verse 40)

Meet Sophia Lynn Friederichs!

  

It's a girl! Last Tuesday we got to find out so much about our little baby. We looked forward to our appointment with great excitement, but also with lots of prayer. We know lots of people go into this appointment with excitement over finding out if it's a girl or a boy and we did too- it's completely natural. But we also know some people who found out their baby would not survive, some who found out their baby had significant diseases or deformities that would change their lives forever.

So we prayed a lot. We prayed for a healthy baby. We prayed for accurate information. We prayed for wisdom and peace should things not go the way we wanted them to. We also repented. We had to repent for finding joy and hope in a healthy baby, for knowing most of our wanting a healthy baby was for our convenience and selfishness. And we centered ourselves on the Lord and his will, our place in it, and our baby's place in it. We prayed that healthy or unhealthy, boy or girl, that God would capture our child's heart and take hold of its affections, that our baby would be forever changed by the gospel, that Jesus would be its greatest treasure, that it would give its life over to the God who has saved it from sin and death and condemnation. We asked God to do these things and to do them soon and to let us be a part of it.

So this is our prayer for Sophie. This is our greatest hope for her. We would love it if you would pray these things too for her and for us.

We got a great report: 7 1/2 inches long and 9 oz, she's tall and skinny. ;) Her heartbeat is strong and everything on the sonogram showed a beautiful, perfectly healthy, little girl. We also had two blood tests done for several birth defects and both came back today negative.

We are so excited every time we find out more about her. I started feeling her kick about two weeks ago and that has been such a sweet thing for me each day. I can't wait for Andy to get to feel it too, if he'll ever be patient enough to wait longer than 10 seconds for it! :) I was hoping for a girl, and was so shocked to find out she was a she! Immediately I have felt more connected to her, getting to call her by name. How sweet she is to me already! Looking forward to the days to come when we continue to learn more and more about her until we finally get to meet her face to face!

Radical Womanhood

I have read Carolyn McCulley's blog, also called Radical Womanhood and she is wonderful. So I was not surprised when one of my best friends recommended her book. In fact, it received such high praise from both my friend and her husband that I was afraid to read it. When I set up really high expectations, I usually find myself sorely disappointed. This has been an exceptional experience, in a lot of ways.

When I finished it, I couldn't wait to post it here, because I want every woman I know to read it. I want many men I know to read it too, including Andy, though I won't hold my breath on that one. ;) (I've already got him slaving away with another book!) I have been able to read him several exerpts as we lay in bed reading, and that has always prompted good questions and conversation, which was one of the many treasures this book brought me. It is hard to find good material written for women about women. I've had to get good stuff about women from men like John Piper or CJ Mahaney. This book was like a breath of fresh air. It's direct, relevent, and well researched. Carolyn's stance is rooted in a deep understanding of Scripture and the character of God. It will challenge and encourage you in many aspects of your life, particularly as a wife or mother.

The book was also so well written that it didn't read like a nonfiction. I found myself struggling to put it down. It has a great mix of historical fact, Scripture, Caroline's reasoning, and personal testimony. I frequently had to set it down so that I could mull over something or sift through where my heart was on a particular issue. On the flip side, I read part of it on a plane and had to set it down several times because people were staring at the girl who was sobbing while she read. :)

Overall, it's one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read. You will learn tons about the effects of feminism on our culture, people we share our lives with, and even ourselves. You will be able to compare your view with what God has commanded in Scripture. I hope you will be pushed to repentance as I was, and that you will be encouraged to be a radical woman of God!