I had to get this little bean on video yesterday. He was dying at Jon blowing bubbles with his gum.

Fun with gum from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Ha! Have a wonderful Thursday!

Today, Nathan and I went to go see his first movie in the theaters!

A couple of local theaters do a dollar kid’s movie (that has already usually be released on DVD) in the mornings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’ve been debating if I thought Nathan was ready to actually sit through an entire movie for a while and since we didn’t have plans today, I decided to try it just the two of us. If he started acting up, I figured it would be easy enough for the two of us to sneak out.

He did SO good!! We watched Rio and it was very cute. We had a great Mama/Son date! He LOVED the popcorn and I splurged and got him a Sprite too. Not the healthiest of lunches, since neither of us were hungry after that, but I figure once in his life isn’t going to affect him that much. 😉 The chairs kept closing up on him, so he ended up sitting in my lap the whole time. Definitely my favorite part of the movie! 😉

And my lovely day just continued when we got home because I found this fantastic review of Paige Torn by USA Today waiting in my inbox from my amazing publicist! (Gasping here!) SO blessed and excited!!!

When we were driving home earlier, we passed a car who looked similar to one we parked next to at the theater. Nathan says, “Hey! Is that the same car? Is this a dream??!”

Oh my boy. Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Wow, so I think I’m set for the next year on all of your book recommendations on my last post! Thanks! I’m even thinking we should start some sort of weekly or monthly book list thing on here where everyone can just write what they are reading and give us all ideas!

We have had a fun couple of days. We went to visit Jon last week for lunch at the duck pond again. Love my little family. 🙂

I taught Nathan how to play crab soccer (where you crab-walk around kicking a ball) and we had the best time. He was SO giggly that day! The brownies we made and devoured probably had nothing to do with that. 😉

And today we went to our library to pick up a few books and to go to the special presentation they had for little kids today. It was two ladies who sang and did this wonderful story about a bear who was about to have a birthday party. At one point, the bear was sad and left because some pigs had smushed his cake and his friends weren’t going to come. Nathan started crying. It was so sweet. I had the hardest time not laughing at him. 😉 Thankfully the bear came back after we all sang a birthday song to him. Someone was pretty thrilled about that, though the whole way home he kept asking me if the bear got a new cake.

A few book deals I’ve seen lately:

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauk. LOVED this book. I read it when I was on bedrest last year and it definitely made a couple of those stressful days go by a lot faster. It’s also on sale right now on Kindle for $3.49.


Rescue Team by Candace Calvert. I just finished this yesterday and I loved it! I could barely put it down. And – more good news!! – it’s only $2.99 on Kindle right now.

Have a lovely Monday!

Since I finished up the final book in the Paige series at the beginning of May, I’ve been spending the last few weeks doing something I rarely get the chance to do.

Reading!

(By the way, 15 bonus points to whoever can finish the quote in the title of this post and name the person who said it!)

When I was growing up, I would get completely lost in books. I would sometimes forget to eat I would be so busy reading. It’s quite a bit harder now with a busy two year-old around and for some reason, both boys I live with like to eat. 😉

Since Jon has been busy every night with homework for his Master’s class this summer, I’ve had lots of time to read this month! So I raided my mom’s bookshelf and finally started reading some of the free books I’d been piling up from Amazon Kindle. 😉

Here’s what I’ve been reading so far this summer:


Jesus Calling (by Sarah Young) – I love, love, love, LOVE this devotional! It’s written by a woman who kept a prayer journal for a year except instead of recording her prayers to God (like I think most of us do!), she took the verses she was reading and turned them into notes from the Lord. At the end of every day’s reading, she includes a list of verses that led to that day’s thoughts. My new favorite place to read this is in the morning on my back patio with a hot cup of coffee. 🙂

Fools Rush In (by Janice Thompson) – This novel is so funny! Love the story of an Italian family living in Galveston, Texas trying to run both a pizza parlor and a wedding consultant company. The story is told through daughter Bella’s eyes and it’s a very quick, fun read!

A Hope Undaunted (by Julie Lessman) – I don’t read very much historical fiction, but this novel was free on Kindle a few weeks ago and I snatched it up then. 😉 It’s about a large family and set just before the Great Depression.

Evidence of Mercy (by Terri Blackstock) – I read this book about ten or more years ago and loved it and just reread it this week and could barely put it down again.

Next up for me – Perfecting Kate by Tamara Leigh!

What have you been reading??

So blessed to have such wonderful readers. You are amazing. I am praying for each and every one of you!!

It is definitely summer here! A few things we’ve been up to lately:

Playing in the water! Whether it is our little backyard pool or Gammy and Pops’ big pool or the sprinklers at the park, we have spent a LOT of time in the water this summer already.

 Painting! Someone is SUPER into “school” and school-related things, so he always drags his little table out and asks to do school. So we paint and practice our letters. He learned how to write his name (with TONS of direction!) and I was so proud of him!

The library! We have been to the library many times already this summer. Nathan was SO excited today because we found another Fred and Ted book! He’s also been super into the Berenstain Bears and I picked up a DVD of them today as well.

Going to Daddy’s softball games! Jon had a game last night and the umpire was SO kind. He let Nathan come play after the game was over for a few minutes and called all of Jon’s pitches. Ha! The other umpire came over as Nathan rounded third and pronounced him safe at home. Nathan was so stoked!

Watching an old favorite, Super Why, in his Super Nathan outfit. Love it!

Lots of activities equals lots of falling asleep on the couch in the afternoon. 😉 He’s so cute.

And a few things I want to share with you guys:

My friend Bekah Hamrick Martin just released her new book, The Bare Naked Truth About Waiting, and she’s got a FUN giveaway going on right now! Head over here to enter!

And my another friend, CJ Darlington, just released her newest novel, Ties That Bind, and I’m super excited to read it! You can find it here.

AND… Miss Match is only $.99 on Kindle until Sunday! If you’ve been waiting to get it or if you’ve been wanting to get it for a friend, now is the time!

ANNNND (ha!)… don’t forget that you can still get your very own autographed copy of Paige Torn from my bookstore! 🙂

And here are some fun links! 🙂

If you have been following this blog for a little bit, you know that Jon and I have been trying to conceive baby number two for a little over two years now. It’s not my most favorite thing to talk about, so I don’t mention it often, but I felt like it was time for a little update.

It took us five months to get pregnant with Nathan so never in my wildest imaginings did I ever think it would take us this long for number two. We got pregnant right before Mother’s Day last year and then miscarried about six weeks later. I can honestly say that I have never been at a lower point in my life than last summer.

I went through the stage of thinking that if God could take our little one, who we had already been trying a year for, what is to stop Him from taking my little Nathan? Or Jon? And I had to learn that God is my Father and that He is good.

I went through the stage of being so desperate to get pregnant that I could barely stop thinking about it. If I wasn’t Googling something, I was reading something, thinking about something, trying to figure out our timing and what day of my cycle I was in. And I had to learn that God’s timetable is not necessarily my own timetable.

Starting in November, we began seeing a fertility specialist. After dozens of tests, ultrasounds, bloodwork and semi-painful procedures, we discovered there was nothing wrong. The doctor didn’t know why we weren’t getting pregnant. So, we did three IUIs (inter-uterine insemination) and several rounds of a fertility drug believing that our odds of success were going to be great and still…nothing. And I had to learn that God is the Author of Life and He can choose whether or not He will work through a procedure.

I have questioned everything I believe. I have questioned everything about my life. Is God not good? Does He withhold something just to cause pain? Is He not giving us another child because we are terrible parents? Do I not read my Bible enough? Pray enough? If children are a blessing, what am I doing that is wrong?

How much, in my selfishness, I make this about me.

In the last several months especially, I have come to see so much of God’s grace in my life. I have learned more about Him as a loving Daddy. I have learned to trust His timing and His direction for my life. He is Sovereign. I have seen the good in these years of infertility – the time alone with Nathan, the way this struggle has drawn me closer to Jon, the longing I have now for heaven.

I have learned to appreciate the days of being able to teach Nathan without having to split my attention to care for another. He is so passionate. I want him to learn to use that passion for good. I love being able to do things with him and play things with him and teach him how to make chocolate chip cookies and be able to be totally focused on him during the day. I love having a child who can play by himself and who understands that Mommy needs to write. I love my little helper doing the laundry or dusting or vacuuming (though for that one there is some debate about whether or not it’s actually “help”). I love how we have the freedom to spontaneously go get frozen yogurt or play baseball in the backyard or run through the sprinklers on hot days.

After all this time, I can honestly say that I am content.

Do I still struggle with it? Of course. I still sometimes get teary thinking about it or thinking of our little one we lost. I still get the now-familiar ache anytime someone announces their own pregnancy or I see cute pregnant women or precious babies.

I do honestly believe that someday we will have another child in our home. And right now, we are just praying for God to make His will completely evident to us about what our next steps should be. We’ve been taking the summer off of fertility treatments so now we are waiting and praying and trying to discern His will. Should we do more fertility treatments? Are we perhaps being called to adoption? Or to simply wait and treasure this time we have right now?

I am so thankful for all of you. I have received so many wonderful, precious emails and comments and letters that I hold so dear to my heart. Please know that I pray for each of you. I would very much appreciate your prayers for wisdom for me and Jon.

Love to you all. 🙂

Last Friday was National Donut Day. And if there was ever a holiday we will happily support, it’s come-get-a-free-donut day. 😉

My boy with his “frinkled” donut.

Me and my Jon. Nathan was very insistent that Jon needed to wear the donut hat just like him.

See his little wrinkled nose? I see this face a hundred times a day usually accompanied by “Oh, Mom….” ha! He’s two going on fifteen.

We also went to (what else?) swim this weekend at Gammy and Pops’ house. It has been SO hot here – I heard that it was twenty degrees above the normal for this time of year this weekend. Yikes! We were melting so we decided some frozen Cokes would be a nice, cheap treat. 😉

Tired boy. The Coke was the only thing that helped him stay awake in the car on the way to the pool. He slept good last night!

At dinner yesterday, Nathan looked at us and said, “So, Jesus lives in your tummy.”

I said, “You mean your heart?”

He said, “Yes. In your heart. And your heart is in your tummy. And if you love Jesus, He comes to live in your tummy and then He lives in your tummy forever. And if you go BANG” – at this point he whacked his arm on the table – “and you break your arm, then Jesus will fix it because Jesus is like Handy Manny.”

We have some work to do theologically.

We had a very fun visitor at our house yesterday and today!

Nathan adores his sweet friend Gracie. And it was the very first sleepover we’ve ever had! We had such a wonderful time with this little sweetheart while her parents had a fun night away!

She was the easiest thing ever. We even went to our favorite CFA today and Nathan got to play while Gracie and I visited with Gammy and our dear elderly neighbor a few streets over who we’ve gotten to know.

Sweet little sleepyhead. 🙂

And my jammie buddies this morning! Nathan LOVED having her here. He was so sweet with her. I only had to remind him to be gentle once or twice. He made up a little song for her that went something like this, “We loooove you, Gwacie. We will taaaaake care of youuuu.” Ha!

This little one seems to be pretty excited to have his mama all to himself again.  🙂 Though he keeps asking me where Gracie is and where her pack-n-play went and if her bed is gone, where is she going to sleep tonight? 😉

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Someone learned the Lion King song.

Please ignore the mess in the background of this video. Jon and Nathan were tackling each other in the kitchen when he started singing and I had to record it. He’s been singing it almost nonstop since.

The boy has lungs. 😉