life is like a birthday cake

Sweet. 
Surprising. 
Messy. 
Layered.
Adding a little pink never hurts.
Takes more effort if you want it to look good. 
Might taste better than it looks.
A moment of bliss may lead to a season of guilt.
An awful lot of work to make, but takes no effort to destroy.
Goes well with ice cream.

Life... and cake... worth taking a big bite of.

Happy Birthday to my husband!  He makes the messy things in life make sense... taste good... worth the work.
 
And he loves cake, probably more than this little gal, who is quite proud to have "helped".
 

In case you were wondering... 3-layer chocolate cake with vanilla pudding, banana, and berry jelly filling, and whipped cream frosting with chocolate shavings on top.  Yum.

vacation

Rest.  It is a good recipe for repairing family relationships, promoting sanity, and for becoming equipped to practice godly traits like having grace for people or being servant-hearted. 

God created human beings with the need to have regular rest in their lives - it is why He commanded a Sabbath so long ago.  It is probably why He designed us to need 8 or more hours of sleep a night.  He knew that we humans would get caught up in the hustle and forget to slow down.  He knew that we might spend our whole lives working if He didn't remind us to slow down to enjoy all that He created for us.  He knows us so well, that even if we don't understand why, when He tells us to get some rest, we should obey!!

It is simply amazing what a decent amount of sleep can do for a pregnant woman's personality.  After a restful, relaxing, restorative vacation in Kauai with the family, I feel more like myself than I have in 24 weeks.  Having no convenient Internet access was also a part of the hiatus - it meant that I got behind on blogging, but it also meant that the family had restful time to enjoy each other fully absent of everyday distractions. 

Though we have taken other trips with family and friends before, this was our first vacation with just the 3 of us.  Probably the last.

We spent a lot of time in the pool...

and collecting special objects at the beach...


Holding 2 large leaves that doubled as pretend fish

Holding a sea cucumber

... where we had trouble keeping Annike's bathing suit on.  No big surprise.

It was actually quite stormy while we were there.  We ran for cover on more than one occasion to hide out under a tree in a downpour.  But a little (or a lot) of rain never stopped us from having fun!

Mother's Day was celebrated with brunch and cards and a break from motherly duties like cooking and dishes.  Just the way I hope to always celebrate.

I had to throw this picture in because Annike finally looks like me in a photo!  She definitely has a lot of Daddy's features, but when she is squinting in the sun with a half smile, she looks a lot like me!

Overall, it was a wonderful time of togetherness.  A needed break from the tediums of life.  Rest and naps and sleep and more rest that we just don't seem to take time for back at home.  The kind of rest that I truly believe God would like us to incorporate more into our everyday routine, if not at least our weekly schedule.  What a tremendous gift!