Daughter of the King

Claire has been obsessed with princesses for almost 2 years now. It's not something I completely understand (I never had that phase) and it's not something we really encouraged either - it just sort of happened. The term "princess" has so many negative connotations in my head. I never wanted my daughter to have that "princess" mentality/attitude. There's not much cute about it as far as I'm concerned.

However, I've really come to terms with her love for all things princess-like. It even has given me some great opportunities to teach her about God being our King and how we are his children. In January our church held our annual Cabin Fever Luncheon, where ladies put together a themed, decorated table. Claire and I attacked this together, of course with a princess theme!

 The centerpiece was my glass cake stand with her pink tutu around the base. We made some purple and pink cupcakes (and didn't take a picture) to go around the stand and then just a simple vase with wands in it. I even found ribbon with pink crowns on it!

I was originally going to put one of Claire's many dresses over each chair as the chair cover, but most did not fit. So, instead, I tied purple tulle around the chair backs for a little "extra". I stuck with paper products this year for simplicity, but also because I knew there'd be some young ones at the table. Princess Sofia is not my favorite, but we were having a hard time finding things without a specific character on them. And she matched. So we got crowns and stickers for each place setting, too.   

The little girls all dressed up in their princess dresses and were very well-behaved. We had a great time and I was so thankful for the opportunity to do something together with Claire. I could tell she felt special, which was exactly what I wanted. It was one of those moments when it just really struck me how big she is.
Sniff.

Cleaning Convictions

Our household has been in the midst of yet another remodel project, except this time it was forced on us because of water damage. It's always something! Anyway, the biggest piece of this project was putting in new flooring in the dining room and kitchen. One day while they were working on it, J called to inform/warn me that the workers ended up creating a huge dust storm. I was not planning on construction dust. I thought it would be a "clean" project, as far as that goes. It was not.

The rest of that week, much time was spent cleaning off surfaces. I looked in at the adjoining bathroom and it didn't look bad at all, so I didn't give it a "special" cleaning - instead waiting until I would just normally clean it anyway. As I was working through my normal bathroom cleaning routine, I took my damp towel and wiped the floor. The towel was completely brown. The more I looked and the more I wiped, the more dirt and dust I found. I marveled at how something that seemed so clean could "secretly" be so filthy!

And then, right there - 7 months pregnant, on all fours, trying to reach that spot behind the toilet - God used my current condition to shed some light on my life. The thought and words struck me like Cam driving his dump truck full-force across the room and into my legs (a real problem at our house): MY HEART.

I want my heart and my life to be genuinely clean. That the goodness would be clear and that it would hold up even when someone comes in and gives it a wipe down, looking for evidence of dust and dirt. Sometimes the sin in our life is the toothpaste trail in the sink, but sometimes it's just a thin layer of dust hiding on the top ledge of the mirror. Either way, it needs to be cleaned up.