The Babysitters' Club

Hi there friend,

Had a lovely weekend with my family.  Best part, aside from enjoying some good laughs while crafting, was thrifting with Mom and Kate.  Jered and Dad were there too, but they aren't fun to shop with.  (Sorry guys- it's true.)  Unfortunately, I'm a bum and forgot to take out my camera at any point in time.  I managed, however, to get a shot of this:

 

Did I lie?  Forty-one socks I bagged up to throw away.  Forty. One.  However, my husband thinks he's sneaky and I saw the bag of them tossed up on the top shelf at the back of our bathroom closet.  He thinks he's so smart.

On Monday night, Uncle Jered and Aunt Aimee got to babysit! That's right.  We got to stare at this face all night.

 

This is Lily talking to Uncle Jered:

 

Uncle Nate came over too and brought pizza, or "za" as he calls it.  Apparently it's the best pizza, excuse me, za, in the world, or something like that.

 

And this is Miss Lily loving Aladdin already.  She is a smart, little lady.

It was a lovely evening.  Jered let me, yes-he is a baby hog, bounce her to sleep and hold her while she took a nap.  She is too precious.

So, I don't know if you have this problem, but my Bible, over time, gets filled up with sheets of paper I've taken notes on.  Typically handouts from the bulletin or Sunday school classes.  You know, to the point that it's much thicker than it should be.

In going through them, I've found loads of great notes that I should take stock of more often.  I think I've said before that I was going to share some of said notes with you, but I must have gotten distracted.  Today I took notice of some handouts from Rebekah's Sunday school class. 

The class started out as a study of Jonah.  We studied some other passages too, but the focus was on Jonah.  Reba would also bring in lyrics to old hymns, new songs, old prayers, poems, quotes, and articles for us to read. 

I don't want to get into all the babble regarding today's latest news because I feel a certain way, and I don't wish to get into it with people, one way or the other.  (I'm sure you know what I'm referring to.)  I think it's better for me to look at myself and see whether or not I'm living the way I should.  How ironic then, that I should come across these notes I took in class.

"There is but one good, and that is God.  Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him." - C.S. Lewis

"When a fish leaves water, which he is built for, he is not free, but dead." - Tim Keller

Smart guys, huh?  It would have been really easy for God to take away free will.  You know, what if He saw that Adam and Eve obviously couldn't handle it, things were going to be disastrous, and He could have avoided all the bad things that resulted by making us act how He wanted?  It could have been so smooth.  No ripples in the water.  He could have just done what Jafar wanted to do to Princess Jasmine, and forced us to love Him. 

But God is not a villain.  He wants us to choose to love Him.  He wants us to embrace free will, but choose to do right.  Each time I do something outside of His will, well, I hate to think what it does to Him.  He is my heavenly Father.  I know how terrible I feel if I do something that disappoints my dad, so why should this be any different?

It's so easy to get into the mindset of, "Well, God gave me free will, so I can do whatever I want.  He will forgive me after all.  Maybe I can have my cake and eat it too."  But like Mr. Keller said, if we think we are free by going against what we are made for, we are sadly mistaken. 

You know, when we were growing up, from time to time, purity would come up in youth group.  Brandon often said that people want to ask, "How far can I go and still be pure?"  He always told us we were asking the wrong question.  We should be asking, "What do I need to do to remain pure?  Purity is the goal- not pushing the limits towards impurity."  I suppose that doesn't just refer to purity, but to how I'm trying to be Christ-like every day.

Do you ever notice how spiritual truths just bring everything full circle in your head all the time?  For example: If I'm making Christ-likeness my goal, rather than a tether, I will be striving to live how I am made to live, therefore being "good" like the quote from C.S. Lewis suggests and fully alive as Tim Keller does.

Ok, in my head anyway, it came full circle because I didn't plan out this letter in advance, I just wrote as I thought of it, and it ended up coming right back to the first thing I wrote about without me trying to make it do so.

Well my friend, I think I will take my leave for now.  I'd like to end my letter with this prayer- also a handout from class.  Have a good day!

Aim

Suffer me never to think

that I have knowledge enough

to need no teaching,

wisdom enough

to need no correction,

talents enough

to need no grace,

goodness enough

 to need no progress,

humility enough

to need no repentance,

devotion enough

to need no quickening,

strength sufficient

without Thy Spirit;

lest, standing still,

I fall back forevermore.

Eric Milner-White  (1884-1964)

What do you say to that?

Hello friend.

Today is a closet take-over day for me.  Mua. Ha. Ha. 

Jered and I had our own closets for the majority of our first year of matrimony.  Now that we're sharing... well, let's just say, there's a difference of opinions on how the inside of a closet should look.

I probably go through my closet and dresser, with the intention of tossing items I haven't used in awhile or things I just know I won't wear, and get rid of said items, semi-annually, if not quarterly. 

Jered, however, still has pieces of clothing from the dark ages.

This is going to change.  Now, I will not be the horrible wife and throw away the truly loved, however old and worn out, items he has in his closet.  But!  I have no qualms about getting rid of the 53 out of 17,397 socks my husband keeps around without matches, not to mention the ones that are so stretched out that I cannot fathom how they stay on his feet.

 

I am also thinking about finding someone to alter about half of his dress shirts, since the likeliness of Jered growing into them is slim.  (Haha- because he is slim.)

 

You may or may not have heard Jered confess that he is "turning over a new leaf" when it comes to his attire.  He wants to start dressing up in suits and such dressiness more often, and eventually, all the time.  Rather than wear scrubs to work, he almost always wears dress clothes, including a tie.  However, out of the 3,049 he owns, he probably wears only a handful... I think it's time to reevaluate some of those as well...

 

I think if I make some preliminary changes... that maybe I can get him on board... I don't know.  This might be breaking the Flinkman law of man closets?  Can any of my fellow Flinkman ladies shed light on this issue?  Will Jered stop loving me if I toss things he never wears? 

. . .

On a completely different note, I've been noticing a lot of strongly anti-Christian posts on Facebook lately.  Posts that hate on the beliefs of Christians, and posts that straight up are against the people who make up The Church.  

One such post I saw, stated this:

I don't [care] what the bible says about gay people.  The bible condones slavery, child abuse, misogyny, war, and rape-marriages, and should not be considered a "moral guidebook."  And until you actually prove that God even exists, your argument is irrelevant.

My heart broke when I read this... largely due to the fact that I knew who posted it.  But also because this week it became clear to me that many people feel this way.  Many people I grew up with, went to school with, or worked with at some point.  

I have to confess that I can see why they believe the Bible condones some of those things.  Does it not tell slaves that they are to be obedient to their masters?  Does God not tell the kings, such as Saul and David, kings that He appointed, to go to war, sometimes to leave no survivors?  I've even been struggling in my own heart this week about the concept of "predestination."  How can there already be a set group of people who will believe?  I guess that's a big part of why my heart broke after reading the post: because I didn't feel like I could argue against it.  

Except for I know God is good.  I know God is merciful.  I know God is just.  I know God loves all of us.

It's tearing me up inside.  I know these things.  I can't explain why.  Truthfully, I know some people could point out more Bible verses that "prove" the opposite of what I wish I could.  

Earlier this week, Jered, Jacob, and I were talking about behavioral/psychological disorders in children.  It's really easy to say that they probably had some sort of trauma that set such problems in motion.  It's because of the parents.  And the parents are probably that way because of their parents.  And so on and so forth. 

Jacob pointed out, and we agreed, that it's not necessarily the case.  It had to start somewhere. It all comes back to sin nature.  Sin nature is in all of us, and it just manifests itself in different ways.  It's no different than why some of those horrible things happened in the Bible, is it?  It goes all the way back to Adam and Eve pointing fingers at each other and one of their sons killing his brother.  It's all about sin, right?

That might be what caused such horrible things to happen in the Bible and even in today's time, but it doesn't all have to begin and end with sin.  We have Jesus' promise of redemption if we come to Him, don't we?  Thank God- am I right?  What a depressing post this would be otherwise.  

Bad things happen.  Injustice and hate and terrible things.  Some things we just can't explain.  Well, maybe someone wiser, and more learned than myself could.  The point is, and this might be more for my own mind than yours, sin entered the world.  Not everything can be rationalized.  Yes, awful experiences have been had by generations and generations of people.  And not everything is going to make sense.  But if I truly believe what I say I know about God, then I can have hope in what He's promised me.

It's a really crummy feeling to know that I can't change their minds.  I don't know what has happened in their own lives to make them feel the way they do.  I feel guilt at knowing that after my time of interacting with some of them, they still have such feelings toward Christians.  I wonder what I could have done differently to lessen that.  But... I always have prayer.  And I know God can do far more than I ever could.  

If you think about it, maybe you could send up a prayer for them too.  I wouldn't mind one either.

. . .

On a much lighter note: my family is coming to visit for the weekend.  I'm very excited for them to get here and see our place for the first time.  I'm not sure what all we'll do yet, but maybe they'll let me put them to work on some of my apartment projects... Hm... We will see.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friend. 

Aim

Birt-Day Boy

Happy Birt-day husband!

Take a look at that cute, little guy.  I think it's safe to say you've grown up a bit...

I thought long and hard about what to write to you today.

First, I thought a nice, heartfelt letter telling you how much I love you and how special you are would do the trick...

Then, I thought a poem would be great!  You've written several for me, but I've only done one for you, and what better place to write you one than right here?

At last, I arrived at my final decision.  I thought it was only too fair to return the kind, little diddy you created for my birthday.

Ahem, cough cough.

I don't know, but I've been tooold,
Jered Flinkman's gettin' old!

He can't hear, and he can't see;
He's getting awfully wobbly.

He likes saying that he's young,
Now he'll have to bite his tongue.

He wears his mesh shorts up real high,
And he hobbles around like a real old guy.

Now that he is twenty-six,
His bones will snap like little sticks.

He wears tall socks with his shoes,
And his hair, he's starting to lose. (JK sir, JK)

He sits outside and plays his harp,
Then tans his squirrel on an ol-d tarp.

He threw his back out playing ball,
He could hardly move at all.

Ok, I won't go on for as long as you did.  I'm not that cruel.  (Or as clever as you.)

Well, dear husband, I must cut this letter short.  I have some secret, birt-day business to attend to... See you after work!

Love,

Aimee

Forward Motion

Hiya.

I hope you're doing well today.  Have I mentioned how much of an old lady I feel like these days?  During my extended vacation from real life, I have taken up watching Perry Mason and the Price is Right every morning.  Today, a guy missed out on a $98,000 Porsche. 

Anyway, yesterday I had intended to write to you about what God's been teaching me recently, but as I told you yesterday, I was too emotional already. 

You may or may not know that Jered works weird hours.  Half of the week he has a 7 to 3pm shift, and the other half of the week is 3 to 11pm.  This makes routine difficult.  It also means that when he has to wake up early, he wants to go to bed early, and when he works late, he wants to sleep late.  Add to that the fact that on the days he has an evening free, he often wants to play basketball or lift, and in my mind, our valuable time together starts to dwindle.

I used to think that my love language was physical touch.  And I still think that is near the top of the list for me.  However, one thing I've learned about myself this year is that quality time is the winner in my book.  The problem lies not necessarily in how much time we spend together, but the quality of what time we have.  It doesn't always cut it if we're plopped in front of the TV or browsing the internet during our time together.

I think of how much better I feel when I have that quality time.  How necessary it is for me.  How hurt I feel if Jered, through no fault of his own, doesn't get that because he has a different love language.  That brings me to another relationship.

Lately, I've been thinking about how absent my daily walk with God is.  I see Him working in our lives.  I see answered prayers.  I see the blessings.  But, I have been severely neglecting my personal time with Him.  And I get so frustrated at the fact that I'm doing to Him, the same thing that I hate having done to me.  Only, my fault in this is much worse.  (See, whereas Jered thinks all time together is quality time, therefore believing he's fulfilling that need, I'm just flat out, not spending time with God.)

So, you might ask, where is all of this coming from?

Well, Sunday's message was on forward movement.  How we are to embrace the life of the cross.  One way of saying this, that struck a chord in me, was this:  Religion supplements our lives, but God transforms them.

"Now isn't that always the way? The books you read in class always seem to have some strong connection with whatever angsty, adolescent drama is going on."  Get the reference?

Or, in a more church-like scenario, the message always has to do with what God's been laying on your heart?  He gets me every time!  He always seems to get those tough ones lined up, doesn't He?

I came across this great quote I had written in my Bible quite a while ago, toward the end of the service on Sunday.

The Bible is alive, it speaks to me;

it has feet, it runs after me;

it has hands, it lays hold on me.

                               Martin Luther

It's true, right?  But I somehow manage to ignore it?  Is that the right word?  It's not that I'm doing it on purpose.  I love getting into the Word, but I "don't have time" for it?  When all I seem to have right now is time.  Bah- despicable me...

The part I really, seriously, cannot understand, is that it's always so much better when I am in the Word regularly.  When God is the center.  Why then, is is such a struggle?  Well, I'm praying that I'm riled up enough now to make a change.  A lasting change.  

You know, the message was based on "Forward Movement," but when I went to title my letter, "forward motion" came out... I guess it's the same message... It just came from a seemingly silly song about ten years ago... Allow me to take you back to THIS.  

Well, I need to get some cleaning up done around this place, and go for a jog... but I think before I do anything else, I'm going to dive into my Bible for a bit.  Send a prayer up for this girl.

Happy Tuesday!

Aim

Little Faces

Hi.

I don't know what it is about these Iowan sidewalks, maybe I was simply used to the treadmill, but I just found my second blister.  It's a whopper!  I mean, it rivals the ones Jered gets during basketball. 

Instead of doing sprinting intervals, I tried to jog as long as I could without stopping to walk.  (I have horrid distance endurance.  So bad, that you may notice I didn't put "long distance" endurance- just distance.)  I didn't think it went to horribly.  I'll take that.  And so, for the past hour and a half, rather than jumping straight into the shower like I should have, I have been sitting in my own filth as I read up on old blogs I follow and posting pictures of this weekend.

I don't know why, but I always feel more complete if I have photos to share with you in my letters.  At the risk of sounding like Gaston, I just like like having pictures to go along with stories sometimes.  Especially, if it's me telling it.

Really, there's not much story to tell.  We finally took an opportunity to play host and hostess and had Molly, Lily, Jake, Nate, and Moses over for an afternoon/evening of sitting by the pool, adoring Lily, and for me at least, eating way too much.

 

Just look at those faces she gives when she looks at her mommy.  How precious is that?  One of my favorite things is when Molly asks Lily to tell her a story.  She usually obliges.  She coos and babbles and squeals and has the greatest facial expressions.

I may have shared this with you before- but I love seeing Jered around Lily.  Whenever she's in the room, I can see him just itching to hold her.  Both of us do, really, but it's more fun when you see it in the guy.  I brought out my camera the other day, and I have never seen Jered happier about having a camera in his hands before.  It was like he couldn't take enough pictures of her once he started.  Adorable.  You can't blame him.  Just look at that little face.

In a dream last night, I saw some other little faces that I love.  I dreamed that I went back to watch the boys from my nanny family.  I cried because I was so happy to see them and because the little one had grown so much.  Just look at them!  Aren't they dolls?  And they were so much fun to play and talk with.  I'll tell you what- they completely stole my heart over this last year.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I had something else to write to you about, but I will wait until tomorrow maybe.  This girl is getting too emotional to keep writing.   So, until next time, have a lovely day.

Aim

Spare Oom and Other Things

Hi there.

Today I have been listing and researching.  I feel like such a grown up.  Yesterday I researched "hard to kill household plants."  Ok, maybe not a good gardener still, but a grown up, nonetheless.

Since I haven't been given my apartment spending allowance yet, I've been organizing my ideas and coming up with a list of things that I am certain I want to do.  (Some projects still need brainstorming.) 

I've decided, rather than a couple decent sized canvases, or one large one, to do a bunch of small canvases above our couch.  So, today I looked up a wholesale canvas website.  I can get ten, 8x10 canvases for about thirty dollars after shipping and handling.  Didn't seem too shabby to me.  I think the four good sized canvases I got for a steal at Michael's will end up in our room and the spare room.  (Every time I say the spare room I think of Mr. Tumnus saying, "Lucy, from the land of Spare Oom.")

 I also researched spray paint colors.  You're thinking this is the life, right?  I looked for burgundies for our room.  ( I have a bedside table and a cabinet I'm thinking of transforming.)  I also looked for various colors to use as accents in our living room.  I'm still having the most trouble with this room.  However, based on the color schemes I had looked up on Pinterest, I thought these pictures I took the other day might go well.  Yesterday I researched adhering photos to canvas to make them look almost painted on... Might just have to try that out with these pictures.

 

Like I said, I'm thinking about arranging either a cluster, or two rows of five canvases above the couch, so I will have lots of options to fill in with either transferred photos or paintings.  Ideas?

Oh, another project I have in the works is changing up the pillows we got with our couch.  Remember these bright red things?

 

Well, I've decided they just won't do for me on the couches.  They will, however, be great in our room with the help of these great napkins I received last year!

 

 

I love the colors of these napkins!  But, we just don't use cloth napkins unfortunately.  They are just about the perfect size for covering two of those pillows though.  The beige, taupe, and golden yellow already go perfect in our room, and the orange and deep red will be the perfect start to adding those colors as accents like I've decided I want.  I'm going to cover two of the pillows, and then choose another complementary fabric to cover the other one.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough quarters lying around the apartment for me to do a load of laundry at the moment, and I want to wash them before I start this project.  Soon! 

 

So, life...  Last night, as Jered and I were getting ready to fall asleep, my husband prayed for me.  He first thanked God for how He has provided for us, the people He has placed in our lives to help us in this transition, and all the people He has surrounded us with.  We have much to be thankful for.  So much.  I cried.  Naturally. 

For me, he prayed that God would help me find a job.  Not just a job, but a position that I would love.  One that would start a career for me.  I cried more.  Naturally.  Partly because I'm getting emotional about finding one, and mostly because I have a good husband who wants me to not just find something to help us save money, but something that will fulfill me.  Something special that God has planned.

Whew! - For real, friend!  I am emotional these days.  I can barely see my screen right now because of the blurriness.  Ridiculous!

Well, the growling in my stomach is telling me it's time to eat, so I will talk to you later!

Aim

Celebrating Keeping Each Other Alive for a Year

Hi friend.

Did I tell you that Jered had to work on our anniversary?  It ended up being ok.  Sommmebodyyyy thought church started 45 minutes later than it actually did, so rather than walk in ridiculously late, we played hooky and went out for a delicious brunch.  I was going to have our waitress take a picture of us, but I was too embarrassed.

We actually celebrated our anniversary yesterday.  First, we went for a walk.  It's a little different here than it is in Chicago.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day.  We had fun seeing little creatures.  I was hoping to see the deer that crossed our path, not 25 feet in front of us, last week, but she wasn't to be seen.  We tried some mulberries and explored along the lake and had a grand time.

Then, in true sentimental fashion, we had Burger King for lunch because that's what we had on our wedding night.  (In case you don't know the story, the abridged version is this:  Jered and I ate almost nothing all day, and by the time we were on our way to Peoria, we realized he had forgotten his wallet in Canton.  So a very hungry, arriving at grumpy couple was rescued by some Burger King chicken tenders after we picked up his wallet, therefore driving back to Peoria in a happy, proper newlywed state.)

Our afternoon was spent buying wedding presents.  For us.  Yes, that's correct.  We still had some Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift cards, so we figured this was a great time to spend them!  We expanded our colors a bit with our new hot pads and oven mitt. (Crazy the things you can go without for a year, isn't it?)  We also got a new spatula that will play nice with our non-stick pans.  Jered, of course, doesn't need it anymore because he's already mastered flipping his eggs without one.  I, however, am not that skilled.  Although, I am definitely in love with our non-stick cookware. 

 

We also got these bins to organize our bathroom closet.  It was a bit cluttered for my taste, but this shaped things right up.  

 

We topped our anniversary evening off with a delicious dinner at Raccoon River Brewery, which we realized we had actually been to before when we visited Des Moines, although we hadn't had dinner that time.  It was fantastic.  Thanks to Jake and Molly for the gift card!  We felt like we were on our honeymoon again.  If you want to see the difference a year made, check this out.

 

We spent part of our dinner discussing how we plan to treat ourselves to another trip to Cancun after we pay off our school loans.  Also- not that you really care, but that's a delectable turkey burger with pepper jack cheese and guacamole, that I am eating the second half of at this very moment.  Lovely day, right?  Well, in case you are wondering, we've decided that we kind of really like each other and think we'll give another year a go.  

Here are a few other things going on around our place:

Katie!  Your bed has arrived!  This thing is great!  The arms/side pillows, and the back are all adjustable for maximum comfort.  So nice!  

 

And doesn't the owl bookend go well here?  I felt it was fitting because it's holding up Jered's wilderness books.  Thanks for splitting the set with me!

 

Well, friend, that's about it for now. 

Until next time!

Aim