Epiphany

This weekend was yet again full of home improvement projects! The siding is coming right along. The two sides are pretty much complete and the front has been completely ripped off and is half way finished. We were lucky enough to have friends and family come help and play with us. 

This is a picture of Harper and Aiden (You can see the new siding color on the right above Harper's head). This was the first time they'd played together in quite a while. It seems since we became friends with Lauren and Nate we keep moving further away from each other! Lauren and I became friends in college when we both worked for Lenscrafters in Columbia.  We were married within a month of each other and Harper and Aiden are about 8 weeks apart. Lauren and I were both pleasantly surprised that the two played really well together. They were sharing and there was minimal pushing!  This is a picture of the two of them "supervising" their daddy's working on siding.  

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I DVR Oprah. I can't help myself, I love that show. My sadness about her show ending should be a whole other entry. (I've been watching her show everyday after school for half my life!). Anyway, I was catching up on my Oprah over the weekend and I saw her show on the book "Women, Food and God". Now I haven't read the book (yet) but I find the whole concept very intriguing. For those who don't watch her show or missed the episode, in a nut shell the book it sounds as if it's about teaching women to love themselves again. Supposedly it's the new "magic" cure to being fat. If you love yourself, you don't use food as your drug of choice and continue to make yourself fat.

 As I watched the Miss USA pageant tonight with my family this book came to mind. Why do we (as a society) feel that in order to be respected, loved or worth recognition we must be tall, thin and "made up" to no end? God says I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and that includes my belly and neck fat. I will admit I'm a closet yo-yo dieter. I try diets, I try working out, I lose the weight, then a year later I gain it back. But I would say in the last month or so I've done some soul searching. To me being the size I was when I was at 16 is just that. My dad used to call it a girl's "prime". When she was the queen bee or the apple of any man's eye. Recently though, I now not only understand, but I believe that size "6" is just a number on my pants or shirt, the lack of a bikini in my wardrobe. Does that make me sad? A little, but now I've realized it's not sad for my body, I think I just missed the free feeling of being 16. I am not 16 anymore, and I'm no longer sad. My joy comes from within. Not just the feeling but the belief that I am enough. I am beautiful, just the way I am. Too bad I didn't have that epiphany and write a book before this woman did. Maybe I would be sitting in Oprah's interview chair instead of her. ha! 

Ok- enough of my soapbox. Here are the promised pictures of OFL (from my previous post). Nathan is #80.  So cute!!