Merry Christmas from the Daugherty Family

Hello! We hope that these Advent days are treating you well. Just last week, I commented to a friend that I had chosen not to send out a Christmas card and letter this year because nothing new was happening in our household (not to mention that the life of a PhD student and a college administrator can get pretty busy). And then, a big surprise came our way, so I thought that I would post a last minute holiday greeting.

So, I'll begin with our most exciting news: today, I accepted a job as the Director of the Center for Worship Arts at Trevecca. The center is brand new at Trevecca, and I will be in charge of creating both a major and minor as well as to provide continuing education and conference opportunities for worship pastors. The job will give me the opportunity to help to train and encourage the next generation of worship leaders. The job is a little overwhelming, but also very exciting. I will still keep my current job as the Director of Church Services, which will be about 60% of my job, and the other 40% will be dedicated to the Center for Worship Arts. I am loving my job at Trevecca, and look forward to the new challenges that lie ahead in the new year. I also started running this summer. I ran my first 5K in September, and dad and I ran another 5K on Thanksgiving Day. I'm still not sure that I want to be a runner, but I'm considering running the Country Music Half-Marathon in April.

Brad is keeping quite busy with his work at Vanderbilt. He has two semesters left of classes, and is very much looking forward to being done with his formal class work. He is enjoying his program, and knows that he is doing exactly what he was meant to do. This spring, he will be presenting a paper at the Wesleyan Theological Society meeting, and we're all looking forward to a trip to Anderson, IN in March. Brad will spend this coming summer doing some traveling with me (including a trip to Poland with a group of Trevecca students) and studying Greek to prepare for classes in the fall.

Ella continues to be the absolute joy of our life. She turned 3 in November, and certainly keeps us on our toes. She finally found a daycare home at the Vanderbilt Child and Family Center which is just a few blocks from Brad's school. She loves school and can't wait to go each day. She and several of her girlfriends call themselves the "Lava Girls." She is learning all of her letters and loves to sing and read books. Her favorite thing to do is play pretend in the kitchen and with dress up clothes. When she grows up she wants to "be a mommy or a daddy so that I can make breakfast and dinner and have a baby in my belly." She also has become quite the sports fan, loving the Red Sox and Colts, although she tells us that basketball is her favorite sport. She is very much looking forward to visiting our family in Illinois and Indiana this Christmas.

This year, we have been reminded again and again of the goodness of God. When we have least expected it, God has provided for our every need, and some even before we knew we had them. We are astonished at the paths that we continue to be led on, and look forward to what lies ahead in the year to come. We pray that the grace of God would be evident in your lives in the coming year.

The Things We Teach Our Children

I'm pretty sure that part of the point of parenting is to teach your children things about life, and how to navigate through it. But sometimes, even the good things that we teach us come back to get us.

For the past 5 months, Ella and I (sometimes Brad) have gone to East Nashville Cooperative Ministry on Sunday evenings to help with a meal for the homeless and working poor. Each week we help to set tables, serve food, and spend time eating and talking with our new friends. Ella loves Soulfeast, and know that on Sundays we go to church and Soulfeast. On Sunday night, a local youth group was helping out, and one of our very best friends invited us over for dinner. We made the decision to forgo Soulfeast this week, and come back next week. When Ella learned of this, she was not going for it. She said that she wanted to go to Soulfeast, they needed us. So, Brad went over to our friend's house alone while Ella and I went to Soulfeast to set things up and get the meal started. After we had done that she was "so excited" to go for dinner. I guess that she is our little humanitarian.

Then, this morning, I had given Ella her waffles and dried cranberries for breakfast, and came to the table with my own breakfast of toast with butter and a banana. Ella looked at my breakfast and said, "You have two pieces of toast?" I told her that I did and then she said, "God likes it when we share, Mommy," while greedily eyeing my piece of toast. I asked her if she would like a bite of my toast and she said, "Yes Mommy, God likes it when we share." And with a sly smile, she ate my toast!

She's obviously learning some of the things that we're trying to teach her, which is wonderful. Perhaps I should be thankful for the times when she reminds me of ways to act in our world.

For the Holidays

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already here! I can't believe that December is just around the corner. Ella turned 3 this month, and we had a wonderful party. Unfortunately, our camera broke and no one one at our party brought one. So, it will just have to be a party that lives on in our memories. I thought to celebrate the holidays, I would share a few Ella stories.

#1 - For her birthday, Ella received a gift card to Target. And, as much as I wanted to spend it on something practical, we decided to take her to Target and let her pick out whatever she wanted. For a few weeks now, she's been telling me that she needs her own laptop (I guess that Brad and I spend too much time on ours!), and so I brought them to her attention in the toy department. Immediately, she decided that she wanted one, so we took it up to the register and she bought it with her own "money". Ella loves her laptop, and for several days we would be doing things around the house and Ella would randomly yell, "I'll be right back, I've got to check my e-mail." She would run into the living room and spend a few minute on the computer. Today, however, I was looking for a way to distract her in the car and asked if she needed to check her e-mail on her laptop, she said to me, "My laptop doesn't have any e-mail, just games." Very astute!

#2 - One of Brad's favorite things to do when we're taking a few moments to rest on the couch as a family is to yell "Dogpile" and we all pile on. Ella has also developed a liking for the game. This week, as we were sitting on the couch, she decided that we needed a few rounds of Dogpile. After we had done that a few times, she yells, "Duckpile!" Brad asked her what that was, and she proceeded to show us: for the game of duckpile, you pile on top of each other, but with everyone on their backs, facing the ceiling. Ella loves this game even more than dogpile, and proceeded to yell "Duckpile!" over and over again until we told her we couldn't take any more of the piling. We'll see if it, too, becomes a family favorite.

Hope that you have a wonderful holiday!

Ella Endorses Obama!

Last night as we were driving home from church, I told Ella that I had gone to vote that day. We talked a little about voting and I asked her who she thought should be our next president. She excitedly answered, "Barack Obama." We're not sure where she learned about Barack Obama or John McCain, but apparently we talk about them more than we think. I think that Barack Obama is a pretty fun name to say. Nonetheless, the child has given her opinion. I guess that we'll see how the rest of the country feels in just a few days......

Life never gets back to "normal"

I, of course, have been pretty excited about my new diet/weight loss over the last year and a half. Not to mention becoming a "runner" (I'm still not sure if I can call myself that yet). But, I have forgotten a lesson that I learned in the beginning of my weight loss: Life never gets back to "normal", meaning that I never get to go back to eating whatever I want. Even with running I can't eat dessert everyday, and not measure out portions, and eat "just a little more." The pounds slowly but surely creep back on.

So, does this mean that I am on a perpetual diet? Does this mean that I can never eat what I want again? I guess that the answer is both yes and no. I am on a sort of diet, I have never been, and obviously never will be, the kind of person who can eat whatever they want and keep up the weightloss/maintenance. What I need to do is remember the lessons that I learned, in eating you make choices, a lot of them. If I want ice cream in the evening, then I can't have a cookie in the afternoon. If I want a little more dinner, I should eat a little less lunch, or vice versa. If I am eating badly, it's even more important that I make time in my day to go running (which is pretty hard with a little one). These are good lessons to learn, but hard to live out.

I guess this post is more of a reminder to myself, it's time to get serious, and be healthy! Being happy with who I am and proud of how I look is more important than that cookie that looks so tasty. If you have experienced the same thing and have any advice about staying on track, I would appreciate it!

What's the Matter with me?

Those of you who know me well know that when I say that I like sleeping, it's an understatement. I actually list napping as one of my hobbies. If a Sunday goes by and I don't get my Nazarene nap, I'm not a very happy camper. Lately, though, it seems that no matter how much sleep I get, I am never rested. I can sleep 8 hours a night and wake up feeling like crap, just the same as if I get 6 hours of sleep. I drag myself out of bed every morning bleary eyed and wanting more sleep. Every night when I get home, I count down the hours until I can go to sleep at a time reasonable to most adults (and after my 2 year old).

I just don't understand it. I eat a very healthy diet, I exercise about 2 hours a week, I can run 3 miles. Why can't I stay awake? One might think that it's some thyroid thing, but I've had that checked. One might say that it's because I am the mom of a toddler, but my toddler sleeps for almost 12 hours, and only 1 or 2 times a week wakes me up in the middle of the night.

I hate being tired, I want more energy. I have so much to do that I can't afford to go to bed at 9:00 every night. I just don't know how to make it better. Any suggestions?

P.S. I can't do caffeine, it gives me headaches and makes me want to sleep more!!!

What a Big Girl!

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but I haven't' been able to because our computer has been on the fritz. This has been a big summer for our little one, who is slowly but surely making the transition from being a baby to being a "big girl."

In May, Ella started going to daycare at Vanderbilt, just a few blocks from Brad's school. It has been such a blessing. One drawback for her was that they don't allow 2 year olds to have pacis at Vanderbilt. So, on her first day, we prepared her, "No pacis at Vanderbilt." We decided to go cold turkey, and that evening we put all of her pacis into a box, and took them out to the mailbox where the mail carrier would come to "take the pacis to the babies." That night, we questioned our decision while for 2 hours (from midnight-2) Ella cried, "I want my paci." But, after that night, we were done! What a relief. But even now, if you ask Ella what makes her happy she will say without hesitation, "my blankie and my paci."

Ella also made the leap of potty training this summer. She still has the occasional accident, and is working on giving up Pull-ups at nap time and nighttime, but we're making progress. She loves to wear big girl underwear, and often reminds us, "Diapers are for babies."

The last big leap that we made this summer is moving Ella from her crib to a big girl bed. She wasn't climbing out at night, but when she was in her bed for time outs, she would throw her legs over the side. We knew it was time. So, we got a great bed on Craigslist and put it in her room. She loves being able to climb in and out herself, and thankfully still stays in bed until we come and get her when she wakes up. She loves to bring 2 stuffed animals to bed with her (only 1 for nap time she tells us), and loves to "switch" them each night. Here are some pictures of Ella in her big girl bed.

Ella is such a joy, and we are really enjoying being parents to her. She is learning all of her letters and numbers, is very interested in reading and amazes us each day with new things that she is learning. She has also started trying to interject herself into all of our conversations. "You talking about cousin Andy, or another Andy." And is very insightful. Last week, Brad was talking animatedly to get a point across and she said, "You mad at mommy, daddy?" It made us laugh. Her favorite thing to do is hang out at the park. We are thankful for the blessing that she is, and look forward to the years ahead.