under 20 post.

Why do I make blogging so hard. I set lofty unrealistic expectations and then don't write when I am too tired to meet them. Time for another under 20 minute blog. This one is inspired by Mommy Coddle

Currently watching Zero Dark Thirty. Fascinating and sickening.

My husband's book and the record he produced came out in the last 2 weeks. Humbled. He is a smarty and a good at a lot. Here is an interview that tells a bit of what he has done in the last year.

I sewed 1 Easter dress and have the skirt of another done. It has been fun, but I don't have enough time! Below shows my beginnings plans for quilted Easter baskets. Even though I started early, life got in the way and I don't think they'll be done this year. Maybe by next?

I finally reached that point again in exercise where it makes me feel better instead of making me want to give up. As a result my RA is slightly more controlled. Slightly. Still gluten free which also helps. This may be a blessing. Going gluten free. I may blog more on that later....

Our friends Bryan and Chandra moved. We are so so blessed to have been in community with them for a few years. Bryan is a super coach and I think you should browse his blog for productivity and organizational growth, Brian Howard.

I have been re-watching Alias and Veronica Marrs. I love those both so much. AND THEN the Veronica Marrs movie went on Kickstarter and it is happening! What are you watching?

I just read on a sewing blog tonight about  Foyle's War and I am pretty sure I will watch it next week in marathon. Tell me if you do too!

XO blog friends.

A few favorite Valentines Posts

Molly Piper's You Can't Quantify My Love
I love her honesty and realness. She talks about the Gospel but doesn't pretend things are always perfect. Molly has been a real blessing to me and so many of my friends in her writing about motherhood, wife hood, loss, and loving her family and God.

Eric Carle's A Love Story and a Love Song
Chances are you live under a rock if you haven't heard of this guy and his amazing books, yet his blog is so simple and sweet and he reminds me of one my favorite professors from college.

Emily Henderson's Happy Valentine's Day
I like this gal. She has a blog and a TV show. She is funny and real (I like real. OK?). I think she is single handily saving HGTV for us 20-30 somethings (that don't want to be labeled 20-30 somethings). And I love that she takes her marriage seriously. And because I am a pastor's wife and have very mixed bag of readers I will tell she says a word or two that might offend you. BUT most of all. I love her description of when they met and "knew" and were like, uh this wasn't supposed to happen so quick but I am pretty sure you are the one. (I know a couple with names that rhyme with Sike and Marah Sosper that were they same.exact.way) She says " Lets face it, there are a lot of drawbacks of finding your 'person' so young...(BUT) You watch them become different, but the same. Older but the same. And better, but the same."


Well Mike Cosper. The drawbacks of eating Aldi's mac and cheese and Kielbasa and Jiffy muffins for 5 years 4 times a week and being broke and all kinds of sick throughout our 20s and early 30s far under weigh the beauty of you pointing me to laughter, joy and Jesus for the last 12+ years. You are a great man, friend, husband, pastor, guitar player, and dad. I love you.


* Edit. Tera asked how many days we have been married...If my math is correct (and it may not be, I retook algebra...) We have been married 4, 425 days. Yahoo!

Some of my favorite pictures of last year part 1...

I am so thankful for this past year. Here are some of my favorite memories. Lots and lots of pictures!

Dorothy's first moment with Maggie Sue!

Our first family picture.


Mike and his girls.

My family. In small, medium, and large.

Brooks, Jamie, and Mike in DC for the Sovereign Grace Worship God 09 conference.


Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.

...Again Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.


Our friends Lachlan and Ellory Sue with Dorothy at the Ems house.

4th of July with the Degraides and Montgomerys


This sums up my day sometimes.

I am so crafty I make people and quilts.



Grandpa and Grandma Huff with their grandkids and celebrating their 40 years of marriage.

I love this sweet girl.

Maggie Sue Courage

Halloween with the Lewis and Butlers.

Avery and Dorothy.

An outtake from our family portraits with my MamaDear, Mickie Winters. Yes those are pajama pants, with Mary Janes, with no socks.


These pictures were taken by me, Mike, Chuke Heeke, Michael and Mickie Winters, Chip Lewis...and if I forgot to credit someone, let me know.

I'll (try) to blog December pictures soon!

Little Miss Dorothy Jean, 7 months old (March '08) in my old dress.

We have been looking at a lot of pictures of old Dorothy. I have not taken many of her at all in the last few months, other than with Mike's iphone. I have torn the place apart for our camera and have every piece EXCEPT the battery charger and extra battery. This explains that when I DO post photos they are either fuzzy (from Mike's phone) OR they are old ones of D. This time: a photo of Dorothy a year ago this month. One of my favorites ever. I can't wait to get our awesome camera up and running so you can see her curls and compare her to that bald head a year ago!

Five weeks from yesterday marks the day of our scheduled c-section...April 21st. Yahoo!

We have been busy with spring cleaning, rearranging the house, our church/Mike's job, raising a 1 1/2 year old, a new nephew (Samuel Joseph Cosper), catching up with old friends, loving on our families and much more.

God bless you all.

Just wanted to tell you that I am ever so grateful for my parents and Mike's parents. Not because of the endless gifts and service they give us, but because of who they are and the fact that they raised Mike and I to know and love Christ and that they stayed together enduring good and bad and showing that marriages can last even in this day in age. I say all this as my Father in law, John had surgery on his leg today. Praise the LORD, all seems to be fine. I am so blessed to have these four in my life.

On a much lighter note, you must check out this post our best friend Lachlan wrote about Mike: The Curious Case of Lachlan Coffey.

Tera tagged me...I was supposed to go to my 6th folder and get my 6th picture, but I just picked the 6th picture on my desktop. This is Miss D at the 930 this month. I would like this piece of art, from Lost Love in D's room.

Update:

• I have a tentative c-section date of April 21st!
• That is 10 weeks away!
• Mike,Neil, and the Sojourn worship team have almost finished their next CD!
• Mike is the co-founder of the Open Sourcebook, an free online liturgical resource for churches. It just launched this month.
• Sojourn has some GREAT new web blogs and resources. Check out TravelBlog. (SO THANKFUL FOR BOBBY GILLES WHO MAINTAINS THIS)
  
• Dorothy had her half birthday this week, that means she is 1 1/2!
• D talks in sentences as of this week. Some of them make NO sense and the other half are clear as day "I don't want noodles mama." "Read stories mama?" "Thank Jesus for cheeseburgers" Mike and I just look at each other shocked. I prompted her to thank to say thank you and she said "Thank you Mike" then started laughing, because she used his first name. She continues to call Mike's parents "Nana and Papa" And has labeled my mother "Sue-sue" and my dad..."Gamp-pa Sue-sue". I am not sure how he feels about that.
  
• We are sill dealing with so much crappy health...We all had colds and for Mike and Dorothy it developed into bronchitis...Mike's back, my arthritis. We just continually have to do life our own way. I have had to step back from a lot of expectations that others have on me and that I have put on myself. It is hard, but it is so nice to remind myself I am putting God first and then my family. And that is all that matters right now.
  

Happy December! Thank you so much for all the love again. Our life is taking on a bit of normalcy. Mike is still in major back pain but we see a specialist this week. We have our 9th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we find out the gender of the baby on Monday! Here is a picture of Dorothy's first corndog. About 2 minutes later she had taken the "corn" off the "dog" and inhaled them both.

Well, you are all so loving. I have received many emails and facebook messages asking how we are and the truth is we have been better. You probably remember that I am now 16 weeks along. Since about week 7 I have been extremely nauseous and throwing up on an almost daily basis, with a few needed days off here and there (yes it's still happening...just this morning). I traced my previously mentioned RA flair up to the same exact day that I started drinking regular coffee! Seriously, the day I had this amazing cup of Guatemalan and that was the day before my shoulder went crazy. ANYWAY. Dorothy has been battling a stomach bug and dehydration since Saturday. She didn't eat more than a few bites for 4 days. On Monday as we were feeling out of the woods with D, Mike called on his way to the ER. His back injury was aggravated, possibly the worse I have ever seen him in the 7 years of this injury. This entire week was very hard because of back spasms,pain, and such...Well Mike likes is privacy and I probably shared too much. But please keep us in your prayers. We have more doctors visits coming up, some for Mike and some for the second baby (heartbeat and ultrasound!).

Oh, but despite all this. We have had some quality family time together and Dorothy is adding new words and funny habits every day. Just as she turned 15 months she started calling me "Mama". She has been saying "Dada" since she was 9 months and calling me "Sarah" randomly since July.

We have also been talking a lot about babies and looking at pictures of babies and her doll. I am slowly getting her to be gentle with the doll and the baby Jesus from her nativity. She chucked baby Jesus the first time she had him, but this morning she picked him up and kissed him. Progress!

Hello friends and family, near and far. It's been 14 days since I posted! Well 7 days in the middle of that 14 we had no power because of the hurricane winds that hit our region. During that time my 1st trimester nausea hit it's peak and Mike's back injury added some extra interesting juggling. But praise God we had friends and family host us. 2 nights with our dear friends, Daniel and Mandy; 3 nights with Mike's parents; and 2 nights with my parents. So I have put sewing and blogging on the back burner as I put the my time with God and caring for my Mike and Dorothy. So much easier said than done. Love to all.

Have I ever sent you over to Sojourn Music? It is fantabulous. Our friend Bobby (who I think lurks on this blog but never ever comments) runs it and I just wanted to give him and the site big applause. He works with my man, Mike and all the worship team at Sojourn to provide updates and info on "all-of-life worship". Here is one of my favorite posts, written today.

Oh and here is a picture of Bobby holding newborn Dorothy a year ago, maybe that will bring him out of lurking! Ha!

Ten years ago today, I was picked up for a date with this guy I knew just a little about. I had met him a year and half before in our junior year through our mutual friend Lachlan (his best friend and my Jr. prom date:). Mike Cosper was a guitar player, tall, handsome, and the icing on the cake- a christian. As I had gotten to know him, he was guy who took his faith seriously. So that date was the greatest. I got overwhelmed at the budding relationship and freaked out on him for a few weeks emotionally abusing him like so many young girls do with guys, but by September we had were together and talked about getting married.

And people, you all knew it was crazy, because I never had really really dated anyone before that. Some told me we'd break it off before our wedding or get divorced soon after. By the grace of God, we had two couples come into our life soon after our wedding in December of 1999. Daniel and Mandy Montgomery and Les and Alison Groce were slightly older, wiser married couples. They poured time and love into us and showed us formally and informally godly marriages. To this day they love on us and care for our friendship and marriage, whether they live a few blocks away or across the world.

So today on Facebook I declared that I have been dating Mike Cosper for ten years, and though 8 and half of that is marriage, he still dates me.

I love you Mike.

My Loves on Father's Day.

Hello! We are in Aspen, Colorado, well technically Snowmass, CO. This really has been a vacation of a lifetime and we are are only half way through! Here is a journal of our trip so far.

Luckily D helped with some of the driving.(edit: before you think I am like B. Spears please know that this was at a gas station while the car was off!)
Stretching our legs in North Texas.
Our condo in Santa Fe!

Reading some theology...

Our hike through the Bandelier National Monument,

Climbing up to the cliff dwellings...
...where the Ancestral Pueblo people lived.
On the hike.
So, I tried carrying her but look at the shoulders, it doesn't really fit me.

Re-hydrating Dorothy Jean after a long hike. Look at our hair!

More pictures to come!

(Yesterday's) Picture of the Day

D had her first swim in a pool yesterday. I took about 2o pictures and I had it set wrong, so they were all overexposed :( Soooo, I tried to fix it and I like it because it looks kind of like an old film picture instead of a digital.

Pictures of the Day: Watching Radiohead with Daddy

Love these People

Love these People
Originally uploaded by findingcontentment

Booo. Still no pictures from me so I'll give you some pictures of others.

Courtney told me about bighugelabs.com which is a really fun waste of time! You can create these great photo mosaics with your flickr photos or others flickr photos. I chose some of my favorite photos that friends have taken and here it is!


1. Sojourn Music 028, 2. Kate and Neil lead the discussion, 3. Good friend Jamie, 4. i love this. esp. how ruby is all :D, 5. maternity (3).JPG, 6. Brian&JoJo, 7. Trying to read the paper series, 8. big bite!, 9. Gettin registered

Much thanks to Bobby G, Tom B, Alex O, Leesa, and Courtney for these beautiful photos of these beautiful people I love!

Praise God:

Lord I thank you that we are in a country where I can freely worship you and thank you for all you give me.

*Fried Green Tomatoes and Garlic Parmesan Mayonnaise from Lynn's

*Hand me down clothes and toys from friends and family

*Dorothy's cold is just a cold (I pray it stays that way)

*Our Church is helping take care of people

*My husband loves me well, and that's not just he sent me flowers though I am thankful for those too

*In less than a month both sets of our parents will live just across the river again

God, I am thankful for:Mike and Dorothy: baby dedication September 07
I heart them so much.

• Remembering our baby dedication last fall. It was a sweet day with family and friends.
  
• Spring weather
  
• Sewing and crafting
• Reconnecting with friends and family
  
• My church
  
• Getting to know people better over this "web" (this means you Ceece :)
• One of Dorothy's three emerging teeth popped through yesterday!

Praise God for all these things.

I Thank God For...

God, I thank you for...

my backyard

the yellow sparkles in my husband's and daughter's blue eyes

encouragement from my husband and parents when they see what I have sewed

that cutting out sugar from my diet seems to keep down RA flair ups, a bit

the book Philippians

Wendell Berry's writings

CSA starts soon

a dog who submits to a squealing, clawing 8 month old baby girl

a vacation with family

Yesterday, while restocking our groceries at Kroger, Dorothy sat upright in her shopping cart. She has done this many times, but this was the first time she did it sitting up well. Not once did I have to prop her back up. She had a hat on and she kept taking it off. It struck me how big she is! Two weeks ago she couldn't reach her hat, much less pull it off (over and over again:).

And here are some of my favorite vacation pictures...




There was a crowd around them looking at the chimps and they were just looking at each other.



Sitting in Papa's truck.



Chihuly glass at Fairchild Gardens
(we have seen his art in London, Indianapolis, and now Miami)

...with Nana on a tram ride.



...and my girl and I.