home-videoooo.

it's so hard to even remember her being this tiny.  and its fascinating to see her little face and how much its changed in just a few months.  

(sorry, this is long. and probably boring to most people. but its for me.  and i love itttttt.)

i want this book!!!

 Michael is always challenging me to think through how the gospel informs every part of my life.  Even the very mundane, ordinary, routine things. 

Perhaps especially those things! 

(That's why i've found it so helpful to be participating in "the gospel in her home" posts!!) 

Anyway, here's a book alllll about just that!  

I neeeeeed (want) it.

xoxo

all in the month of may

may was a lovely month.

annie and i went to texas.

we spent mother's day in niagara falls.

i read "the silver chair"...so good!!  almost finished the series.

studies 1 & 2 Thessalonians all month.

annie started eating solids and so far, she loves pretty much everything except avodaco, so i mix that up with banana.  

we've enjoyed nice weather and gone to the park for the swings lots of times.

we finally got our apartment almost completely together!!  (about time)

we got an aeropress!!  this has changed our livessss. iced mochas all day, everyday.  

annie is aaaaalmost crawling.  she will move one step, then go flat on her belly.  

 ok, gotta go take advantage of nap time and read a bit on our balcony.

have a lovely saturday.

xoxo

Annie's trip to TX

just annie and i went to visit my family in TX about a month ago.  over a month ago now.  

she loved them allllll.  

it was suuuuuch a sweet visit.  

missing these dear people so much. 

and chick-fil-a and sonic iced tea and trampoline-jumping and miniature donkeys and i could just list it all for days.  i love tx so much, but mostly these people.  

"the gospel in her home" (good works)

a little thought on the gospel and good works from rachel jankovic's book "fit to burst":

"if you could be the most accomplished mother in the world on your own strength, it wouldn't matter in the end.  there is no freedom from sin that you can find by doing something.  Jesus is all.  His blood is sufficient, and there is nothing you can do that will change that.
but His blood will change you.
when Jesus is all, things happen.  when you believe to your core that you are forgiven and loved, one of the first things that happens is you start doing things.  fruit is intimately connected with forgiveness.  when we are forgiven, we do not gallop out into a life of ambiguity and indifference.  we do not become great negotiators of whether or not it matters that we aren't doing things.  we become filled with gratitude, love, joy, and peace.  and then, having a firm foundation of another's righteousness, we are free to go out and do."



and so with a heart saturated with Christ's kindness to you, go and do good works in your home. 
read scripture to your children, bake cookies, tell stories, keep up with catechisms, kiss your husband, give piggy-back rides, fold the laundry...give and give freelyyyy!! and in doing so, imitate Christ, who freely gave His life for us. 

and go read tiff's post and allison's post. 
ps.  tiff's post this week is full of ideas for "good works" in your home.
xoxo

"the gospel in her home" (identity)

last week (it probably would have made more sense if i had written it then rather than now) the hubs and i were having a discussion on identity and my heart.  i find ample opportunities for my heart to run to identify itself with things, rather than with Christ.  the things we want to be known for, whether it's being an "attachment-mom" or a "cry-it-out mom," or a "baby-led-weaning mom" or the "puree-everything mom" (haha, made that one up!),  "the home-school mom" vs. "the pro day-care/public school family" or that "family that always shops at the local, organic, farmer's market" or "that family that eats out at the coolest restaurants"...whatever.  (i could seriously list things all day.)

even things that could be really positive like being "the reformed family" or "the sovereign grace family" (haha) or having a good "complementarian marriage" or "a radical lifestyle."  good things or bad, if i'm trying to identify myself with anything other than Christ, it's wrong and moves Jesus' body away from unity.  i should find i have everything in common with the Christ-believing mom who feeds her kids McDonald's twice a week...not because i think it's wise or unwise to feed your kids McDonald's but because honestly, that just doesn't matter.  what we have in common is the blood of Christ, and that is what matters. 

"for through him we both [jews and gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father.  so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." -Ephesians 2:18-22

and clearly in the examples above i'm not commenting on whether things are wise or unwise.  
wisdom matters.  but if wisdom seperates us from others or "elevates" us above others (if we become Pharisees basically) then it isn't wisdom at all.  (james 3:17 "but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.")

this is going to be a life-time project, to saturate my heart with the gospel of Christ so i'm not always trying to present myself as a person that gains all the "cool" people's approval, i.e. whoever i'm thinking is "cool" at the time.  i should be consumed with presenting the person i (and every last human being on planet earth) am in reality: small, weak and in need of a Savior; a lost person who is only found in Christ.

go read tiff's blog and al's blog, and don't forget to share a bit (if you want) on instagram using the hashtag #thegospelinherhome.  (i'm @mrschhangur if you want to follow!) 

xoxo

home-videoooo.

i made this a couple of weeks ago for a guest-blog but forgot to ever post it here.  

i neeeeed to make more of these!!! i want to remember her like this forever!!!!!

xoxo

"the gospel in her home" (God's word)

Last night was date-night.  Always my favorite.  I love not cooking, I love going out, and I LOVE talking with my husband.  After last night I felt really encouraged to stay faithful in reading scripture every day, as much as I can.  Sometimes I struggle to see any fruit in my life directly from scripture reading, so I often want to turn to books, sermons, or even house-work, just to see more immediate results.  

 My husband encouraged me to think of it like this:  Its like feeding children.  I have no idea how this works, but a peanut butter sandwich here, a plate of spaghetti there, and wow! they grew!!

(ok, mine is still on a milk diet, with a bit of bananas and sweet potatoes thrown in...even more mysterious!!) 

But the Bible is the very word of God to me, the good news of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is changing me more into the image of His Son.  

But I have to be faithful to just. keep. reading. as if it is food for today. Because that is just what it is!! And as I'm faithful with reading (as I am very faithful with feeding my baby) I will see myself grow, even if its a bit mysterious in the way that works day to day. 

 

 I have to feast on the Word of Christ, the gospel, so that I can lay out a feast for my children as well.  So that we can all grow up in Christ.

Thank God for His word to us!!

also, go read Tiff's post and Al's post!!  

oh, and join us on instagram too (i'm @mrschhangur) by posting a picture, writing a bit about how you are seeing the gospel at work in your home, and use the hashtag #thegospelinherhome !!

ps. how did i just now notice that last week i spelled gospel "gopsel"?!?!  

WHY DID NO ONE TELL MEEEE????

"the gospel in her home" (motherhood)

Motherhood has changed me. 

The other day I was walking through IKEA and a mother stopped and chatted for a second about Annie.  She commented on her hat, asked how old she was (always everyone’s first question, right?), said how adorable she is (of course), and told me to hold on to these months because they go by so fast.  Well, I broke down right there.  My eyes just filled to the brim with tears.  Before Annie, I had no idea about this love that was going to flood my being and change me forever.  The kind of love that makes you cry in IKEA.  Caring for her is such a joy because loving her has changed me. 

The gospel has changed me.

I am so well-acquainted with my sin, that news of redemption through the cross of Christ is astounding and wonderful to me. It’s life-changing news.  It’s the reason I cry when I sing hymns and the reason that serving God can be such a joy…because the love of Christ has changed me.  It makes dead people to live, blind eyes to see, deaf ears to hear!  

And the gospel gives meaning to motherhood.  It informs my role as a mother because it has changed me.  Because loving my baby is how I can love Christ.  And I can love her only because I’ve known and been changed by this truth: 

that “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” -1 Peter 2:24

happy mother's day, mamas.
and go see allison's post and tiffany's post.

its almost may!!!

we are doing well.  

enjoying the warmer weather and being able to go for walks without heaps and heaps of blankets.  i LOVE summer and fall most...so we are coming into my favorite times of the year!!  birdie is almost 6 months old and doing so well.  

a couple little updates:

-she says "da da da", but unfortunately, this has nothing to do with mike, since we call him "papa".  

-she reaches for us (ok, sometimes.  i think.)

-she LOVES watching little kids play.  especially Tirzah, who is 2 and lives across the hall from us.  she is IN LOVE with Tirzah.

-she started staying all by herself in the nursery at church.  the most she has made it was half an hour.  the shortest was about 10 minutes.  (they text me when she gets upset...)

-she has 2 little teeth!!  woohoooo!!  so we started brushing those bad boys!  

-she is napping in her room now.  and naps are getting much better!!  

-still loves Sophie.  so much.  and Sophie unfortunately got left at church this week...

-still only breast-milk for this chick.  i give her veggies to chew on sometimes when i'm making dinner, but she just chews...i don't think she has really managed to eat anything.  we're going to start solids when we get back from TX because i really think she is ready.  

we're leaving for TX early tomorrow morning and we are so SO excited to see my familyyyy.  and so excited to have super-warm TX weather for a week...my running shoes are packed!!  

oh-and i won't be joining in with "the gospel in her home" posts because we will be out of the country, but be sure to check-out tiff and allison's blogs this week and next!! 

xoxo