May in Thousands of Words

It's a beautiful Sunday evening in May.  The breeze is cool after a hot day and the sun is setting over the neighbor's silos.  I'm sitting outside in my comfy yoga pants and favorite gray hoodie.  My golden retriever is laying faithfully beside me, nipping at the night time bugs and listening to the evening sounds with the cutest perked ears.  As I look at the golden sky and enjoy the gentle breeze, I'm reminded how very much I have to be grateful for.

 Kacia with her baseball right where she plopped it

If you look closely, you can see the silos

This month has been such a mixture of pain and happiness, exhaustion and fun, spiritual and emotional highs and lows.  If there's one thing I'm convinced of it's this: the roller coaster of the past several painful years has made me so eternally grateful that my God NEVER changes.  He is the same.  Every day.  No matter what.  He has no highs or lows.  He remains steady and faithful.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words and there are so many memories from the past few weeks that I don't want to forget.  So below I'm recording thousands and thousands of words.  Words of love, family, friendship, happiness, and joy amidst a life that consists of daily pain and daily choices to choose joy.

 My two Emily's and our red faces after wonderful facials at an Arbonne spa party

(we even have red eyes to match)

 Throwing a baseball in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard in Michigan

 My grandparents sitting by the lake at a cookout

  Hannah taking pictures with Caleb's big camera

  Watching my uncle in his sailboat races

  It was so awesome to be on the water

 Love the sky, love the lake. It was lovely.

  I FINALLY got to go to a Tiger game after twenty-two years of going to Grandpa & Grandma's by Detroit

(And every other family member had already gone)

Walking into the ballpark 

  We got there early so took lots of pictures before the game started

  I happen to love my siblings more than I could ever, ever describe

  They are some of my bestest friends in the whole entire world

 I took this picture on an angle...so have fun cranking your neck

We like being weird

  I like taking random pictures. Like, of my feet.

  We couldn't be too crazy because these wonderful people were sitting above us

  The tiger

  Prince Fielder walking onto the field

  It was weird to cheer for him as something other than a Brewer

  Some of my siblings are more forgiving of him abandoning us than others

(I won't mention any names of the unforgiving ones)

  The last game we saw him in was his three-homer game in Milwaukee

(This game wasn't nearly as exciting)

  Got to meet up with my friend Megan in Holland at Applebees & Walgreens...so great to catch up

 My cousin Mitch got married and it was a gorgeous wedding

  So beautiful!

 

 Erica & Alyssa...two of my favoritest people

  And the whole Haveman gang

  <3 "Twin Cousins" <3

Good looking family ;)

  Susie & Sissy

 Love these girls so much

  I was feeling weird

Yeah. Like I said. Weird.

  We had fun showing Erica how dirty her Yukon was

  Sissy's as tall as Uncle Nevin

  My friend Christy shot a gun for the first time when she was here yesterday...we all had fun doing a little shooting

  I got to hold my friend Leah's little newborn...so so cute & cuddly <3

  This weekend has called for lots and lots of baking...

  ...and I've been loving it!

Delicious manicotti dinner with family & friends

It's almost 9:00 now and the crickets are chirping and the light is turning into dim duskiness.  The mosquitoes are going to drive me inside pretty quick here.  I'm thinking about finances, my upcoming infusion next week, get-togethers with friends this week, challenges with my job, personal and relational struggles, and just how I can't imagine any of this without my Savior by my side.  I'm gratefully reflecting on all those who have fought and continue to fight for freedom in this country as I think about celebrating Memorial Day tomorrow.  The following two pictures are from Facebook and they really touched my heart.

Thank you to all who love and serve this country.  You are heroes.  

It is now 11:20pm.  I've been going through pictures, pictures, and more pictures from four different cameras.  So many fun memories.  I had a bunch more thoughts I was going to share but I am falling asleep so they'll have to wait.  Looking forward to a lovely Memorial Day in the morning and must get some sleep first.

Happy holiday weekend!

April Mind Dump

This month has had so many ups and downs and I haven't taken the time or energy to try to blog them.  But now that the month is almost over (just a couple more hours!) I want to dump a few things and memories out of my mind so that I don't forget them.  (Watch out.)

A week ago I had my first  IV infusion of Remicade.  It was very nerve-wracking waiting for the day to arrive, not knowing how my body would respond (some people have bad reactions, others are just fine).  The prayer support I had covering that day was incredible.  I absolutely cannot believe how many people are praying for me. ME! Little old me.  It's so humbling.  There is no way to express my gratitude for the prayer coverage.  Absolutely none.  God is so good.

The hours of the infusion itself went very well.  The nurses and staff down in Madison were wonderful.  The only reactions I had during the infusion were fatigue and aches from the Remicade being so cold.  A couple heat packs helped a lot with the aches!  After the infusion, I couldn't wait to get home and crawl in bed-I was so tired but that is definitely to be expected.  The few days after the infusion were awful...pain, nausea, and just completely wiped out.  The infusion has also seemed to re-aggravate my breathing and heart rate issues.  Overall, I am very grateful I didn't have any kind of severe allergic reaction.  However, I'm still very much not looking forward to the next infusion in a week.  Thankful God has it all in His hands!

In other happy news, I had about two weeks before my infusion that were wonderful! I was feeling the best I had felt in close to eight months! It was absolutely amazing. My old spunky, crazy, stupid self was back in full force. I had so much fun! And I'm afraid my family & friends were in complete shock and panic as they recalled who the real Naomi is. I was a wee bit really crazy! (Okay, I'm still crazy, not sure anything could ever take that away completely! :P) My younger siblings & I have spent more than a little time in front of Photo Booth over the past couple months and we die laughing every time we do. I spared you from the scary pictures. Just trust me that you don't want to see them.

Yesterday I felt the best I'd felt since the infusion and was (incredibly) crazy all over again.  It was so wonderful to be able to go outside and shoot trap with my siblings & a few friends, play ping pong, foosball, & dutch blitz, bake cookies, etc.  It was one of those absolutely fun Sundays.  The worship service that morning was wonderful as well...great truths about showing God's kindness to those around us.  I appreciate our pastor so much!  One of my friends' mom sang "Your Great Name" as well, which was just beautiful!

April held two birthdays (each with amazingly delicious meals!), the return of my sister who was out of state for a month, a trip down to Milwaukee with a big van full of friends to see October Baby, a visit from some wonderful (new-ish) friends, a big change in schedule at work, lazy weekends, card games, a beautiful wedding, visits with old friends, a big change in my diet, and a bunch more little things.  The weekends were by far my favorite part of this month; well, they are of every month, but especially this one!  They were filled to the brim with life, laziness, laughter, & love!  Good books, music playing from Itunes, sweatpants, cooking/baking, movies, Bible study & prayer on the picnic table, walks on the bike trail with my dog, writing, smoothies, grilled chicken, leisurely breakfasts, long phone chats, cleaning/organizing/decluttering, family time, worship with fellow believers, goofy time with family, and more.  God's continual love and blessing are so apparent, even during the most difficult times!  I so wish I had more pictures of these things but I just have this one of the grill-full of chicken I grilled for my brother's birthday.  Oh, and a picture from when my friends visited for a couple days and we went for a walk on the boardwalk in the Horicon Marsh.

God continues to work in me and teach me new (and old!) things continually.  If there is one thing He's impressed on me most this month it would be loving Him with my WHOLE heart and having that show up in all my daily choices: whether it's time, finances, or whatever.  I'm so far from "there" but I pray that each day I grow closer to loving Him perfectly and wholly. I'm reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan right now and it's an incredible read.  So encouraging, so convicting.  A quote from my Beth Moore study that I read recently is this: "If God's absolute priority for all followers of Christ is love--for Him first and others second--then the absence of such love is sin."  Wow.  Convicting.

Another quote I read in the study recently is a quote from Oswald Chambers: "In the Bible clouds are always connected with God.  Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God.  It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith.  If there were no clouds, we should have no faith.  'The clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet' (Nahum 1:3).  The clouds are a sign that He is there....  Through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something.  His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child--God and my own soul, other people are shadows....  Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God's character, we do not yet know Him."  All I can say is wow and amen!

Here's to May and all that it holds!  So thankful I can trust the One who holds it all before it even arrives!  He is worthy of all praise and love!