Tuesday, December 18, 2007

His record

How long I have lived with the basic mentality that when we are saved, God "wipes the slate clean" and therefore can love us, looking at a "forgiven" person. Yet every day, I keep sinning, and feeling that "now God is angry with me because my slate is no longer clean." I know in my head that this isn't theologically correct, but my heart still lived by it.

But God has finally made my heart see! When I am saved, it is not so much as if He wipes my slate clean, then loves me based on how well I keep it clean. It is more as if I come to the throne room of God, and the agents at the door say, "let's look at this person's record to see if they can be admitted." And when they look, they see a notation that says, "see Jesus' record." And looking there, they see a perfect, spotless record; and so in Jesus I am admitted to the presence and love and smile of God.

This is what makes a heart free! This is what causes me to love my God. To live out from under the perpetual burden of guilt. To learn what it is to be "[cleansed] from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb.9:14).

It is not that sin no longer matters; that would be like saying I can offend you and act as though nothing is wrong in our relationship.

But it means that my sin, my perpetual failure to be perfectly what God commands - my sin does not turn away His love from me or close His arms to me. He does not wear a perpetual frown and have a mentality of "I cannot love you at this moment because you are not measuring up." On my own two feet, yes. But not in Christ. In Christ, His record is what matters, though mine keeps getting defiled. Jesus' record is what God looks at, as it were, to see if He can love me at this moment. And that record always passes the test.

Praise be to God!

worry

Worry is the fear that God will not do you good (in a given situation).

No wonder then that worry is an affront to Him; we are disbelieving His goodness toward those whom He paid so much to redeem! "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom.8:32). If you really believe He is good, and is always good toward His beloved children through Christ - then you will be at peace, believing that whatever He works out in your life, it will prove to be an expression of His goodness.

Worry is fearing that God will not do what you want Him to do. We believe that He loves us, but we want to define what that love will look like. We think we know best what is best for us. We are a child who says to his mother, "if you loved me, you would let me ______ " (eat ice cream all day. play in the busy street. have a gorilla for a pet. not go to school. not give me unpleasant consequences for disobeying.) And we tell God, "If You really loved me, You would do what I wanted!" (Not allow me to be sick. Give me a pleasant life with no uncomfortable circumstances. Not allow people I loved die or move away.)

Believe His wisdom. Believe His goodness. And having taken all your concerns to Him, rest your heart.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Kids update - December 4, 2007

It's been a long time since I've "blogged." Mostly because I'm a perfectionist and think I need to be all comprehensive every time, and there never seems to be spare "time" with nothing else to do in which to write things.

Anyway, here's a recent picture of the girls, wearing dresses that came from my sister Elizabeth after her girls outgrew them. (Ok, so maybe black pants don't match... tights just seem too much trouble.)


Emily is hitting that verbal explosion that I remember Katherine coming to, where she has the ability to attempt to imitate any word you say (if she wants to). She still uses hand motions for "please" and "thank you", though they occasionally come out verbally too. She can communicate what she wants (as long as Mommy remembers that "poooo" (spoon) is not the same as "poo" (food) or any other similar "word" of hers).

She also has a great sense of humor, and likes to do things for the purpose of being funny (as opposed to, kid things that she does being innately funny to adults). E.g., she put part of her cheese sandwich on her head for a hat, and yes, it was funny. (who thinks of making food be a hat??)

Katherine is learning to read with a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - thanks to Jolene, who was using the book with Anna when we visited them in July. It's nice because pretty quickly they add a little "story" to each lesson (which at the beginning might be all of 3 words), and she looks forward to that.

We try to do some math too, but really dropped the ball on that during November. Maybe we can do better in December. She really likes to do it, it's just a matter of Mommy making time for it. Now that I'm not so exhausted all the time, maybe we can make it a priority again.

Anyway, more to write, but Katherine's waiting for the books I promised to read before bed.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I cannot lose!

Yesterday our pastor (Gary Hendrix) preached a marvelous sermon on "More than Conquerors" from Romans 8:37 ("No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."). He gave the example of World War II, where we (the US) won. Yet in winning, we lost many things, many young men who might have been great assets to society in other ways. Winning cost us financially and in many other ways.

But he said, being more than conquerors means that you win, and you are no worse off for it, but better. No casualties. No wounded. No loss of any sort. MORE than conquerors!

This means that I cannot lose. Nothing can be against me. As the pastor said, it would be far better never to sin. Yet when we are in Christ, sin cannot have the results upon us that Satan wishes. Satan wishes sin to make us worse, to turn us against Christ, to make us apostate. But the Holy Spirit uses our sin to convict us, to turn us to Christ, to make us more humble, more like Christ, more dependent on Him.

I cannot lose. It takes away my fear. If I remain healthy all my life, I cannot lose. If God gives me debilitating sickness, I cannot lose. If I have the large family I have desired - or if He gives me only a few children - either way, I cannot lose. If my husband dies at a young age, if we have nuclear war, if I never seem to succeed at the things I struggle with, if I never see the fruit of my labors - yet I cannot lose! Nothing can be against me, in Christ. Everything, everything, will have the result upon me of more than conquerors, of winning with no loss whatsoever to my ultimate condition. Nothing can cause me real harm or lasting detriment. I cannot lose!

If I could live remembering this, I would be a joyful person, no longer so discouraged over disappointed expectations or unmet goals; for whatever the outcome of this day, God shall use it to do me good and not evil. He has promised. He always keeps His Word!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Kid News - October 2007

This is a very short KidNews, but I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts. Maybe someday I'll have time to post a few pictures.

Emily now says "booh" (grape. Don't ask me how that works... but it sounds different than the "boo" for "book"), "ame" (amen), "shoo" (something like that - for "thank you"), and "hsh" (shoe). She loves to carry around heavy things, and also put things onto a chair and push them around.

We put Katherine's talking globe away for a while, since she started not wanting to hear certain country songs or turn the globe on/off by herself (she has this thing about unexpected sounds - even sounds that she knows are coming). But just today we got the marble tower out again, since Emily (mostly) will keep marbles out of her mouth now. Both girls enjoyed that.

I also got out some of my old childhood legos out of the attic (which include some of my Mom's childhood legos!), and those have been enjoyed as well.

Most reading this will already know that #3 is on the way, and making Mommy verrrrry tired. Though less tired now that I finally weaned Emily two weeks ago. Before that I had no energy for a week or two, and decided I just couldn't go on that way. Anyway - they did finally find a heartbeat at my first prenatal appointment, for which I thank the Lord (it took awhile to find). Lord willing, baby will be due in the first part of May.

Friday, September 14, 2007

new words / drought

Emily's new words since the last post: daddy, nigh-nigh (night-night), uh (up), boo (book), beah (bear), beeh (bread).

And since the rain at the end of August, we've had negligible rain until today, when the remnants of hurricane Humberto blew through, and we got perhaps an hour of rain total. The western parts of the state got rain non-stop for several hours, which was great, since they've got the worst drought conditions of all the state. And we pray for more... they say we need 12-18 inches to ease the drought at the moment. We've been in category 4 drought (out of 5) for some weeks now, and the southwestern bit of the state in category 5. In many counties, farmers have apparently lost 30% of their crops for the year, or more.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Kid News - September 2007

Katherine has gotten into her talking globe again, and loves to make it play music from whatever country she touches. She knows where a lot of countries are already.

Emily (almost 13 months old) is mostly walking now. She really took off walking, and hasn't looked back. She thinks her toes are hilarious, especially when they reappear after putting shorts on, or if she's being held such that her toes are near her hands. She still loves to put things into other things and take them out again, though not quite as much as a month ago.

She has almost stopped putting everything in her mouth, and can be told not to do that (and sometimes listens), so we've gotten out the little Legos again, to Katherine's delight - and Emily's, too. They mostly like to take apart and reassemble the Lego people, though Katherine will also build things. Emily doesn't do much building yet, though she does like to take the helmets off the Lego people's heads and then put them on again; she mostly succeeds at putting them on, to my surprise.

Emily says Mommy, no, "mmmm" (means yes), babbee (baby), jee (cheese), dee (drink), and ta-tee (toesies). She understands a huge amount and can do things that you ask her to do ("go get your baby" or "go find Katherine", etc.). She also laughs a lot and loves to be tickled - and to watch Katherine be tickled.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Rain!

God just gave us 2 straight hours of rain! What a blessing! (see next post for how much we've needed it!)

Family News - August 2007

I haven't posted any KidNews for awhile, since it seemed such a daunting task to pick photos and get them ready to include in a post. But I guess anything is better than nothing, so here's a non-photo post, though I may upload photos later.

Katherine turned 3 at the end of May. She's getting more outgoing, at least to some extent. Some things she likes at the moment are
- dressing and undressing dolls
- cutting and gluing her scraps of construction paper together
- the toy "piano" that plays various snippets of songs when you push the keys (though she has figured out how to abort each musical phrase after it begins to make it more quickly cycle through to the song she likes best)
- doing Saxon "kindergarten" math with Mommy (well, it says Saxon K, but it's simple enough for a 3-year-old to enjoy and comprehend most of it; all done with manipulatives (e.g. plastic teddy bears) rather than worksheets)
She also likes to try to trace letters on some wipe-off pages, and do dot-to-dots. She likes to string beads and buttons on wires and make "necklaces". She loves to be outside, though we haven't been out much lately due to the hot weather, and the mosquitoes.



Emily just turned 1. She is just now taking off walking, more so every day, and getting steadier on her feet. She loves to hold a stuffed animal (or other item that she thinks is meant to be snuggled, even a plastic doll) up to her face and saying "awwww" (which is what I used to say when introducing a stuffed animal to her). She has a sense of humor and likes to laugh. She smiles at our camera when we want to take a picture of her, though she doesn't seem to realize that other people's cameras are also things to smile for.

She likes to take off her bib (that has a stretchy neck-hole), and so tries to take off her shirt when undressing too. She likes to take apart Duplos, though putting them back together isn't happening yet.

She says "Mommy", "no", and "ah-dah" ("all done"), claps her hands to say "please", and waves good-bye. (And those few things get her a long way!)

She's a very snuggly kid and likes to be held, though she doesn't demand it (thankfully!). She's very laid-back about things, but also has a determined spirit and usually doesn't give up quickly. She also likes to pull out her own hair so she can suck on it with her thumb... so her hair is not very long at the moment. I hope she'll outgrow that before too long.

The girls do seem to like each other, for which I thank God. I pray they will grow up to be good friends rather than rivals.


In other news...
We went to beach as a family (with David's family) in June and had a nice time (Outer Banks of NC). Almost all of David's family got to come be together for a week; an aunt and uncle from Canada came too.

Then a month later, at the end of July, Katherine, Emily, and I did "the Georgia Trip" which I've tried to do every year, to take the girls to see their cousins on the Peters side. We stayed with Matthew & Jolene (and their girls Anna and Rachel) in Augusta for a few days, then stopped to see Elizabeth and her four kids for an afternoon south of Atlanta, before going on to Chattanooga. We stayed with my Mom for a couple of days, and then she came with us back to NC and stayed for a week with us here before flying home.

While Mom was here, David's Grandad from Canada died (after a long, slow decline), so he flew up there for a couple of days for the funeral.

Sometimes it's nice to finally be home for awhile. We thank God for safe travels there and back all summer.

It's been really, really hot and dry here. We've had a drought this summer, as is not uncommon in recent years, but this year seems worse. Maybe it's because of the heat. We've hit 100 degrees fairly often this summer, which we don't often do (I think once last year). Our current drought status is only "severe" (level 3 out of 5 drought levels), but it seems more damaging than other years.

It's only mid-August, but there are trees losing their leaves as if it is fall already - only not turning color first, only turning brown. Things are dying. Trees are dying. We try to water sometimes, but it's hard to know how much good it does. We haven't had rain for several weeks now, and are praying for hurricanes to come our way (well, merciful ones at least, that dump rain without causing too much damage).

We are thankful to have air conditioning, and running water - things which make life pleasant inside, even if outside is almost suffocatingly hot (though I hear that in Iraq, when the temperatures go down to 100 degrees at night, it feels cool - so I can't complain about temps going up to 100 for a few hours during the heat of the day).

David is still at his current job for now, though it's possible that he won't have that job next year. His company was bought out by another company earlier in the year, and they are keeping on some of the old staff (including him) till the end of the year, at which point they'll see if their skills are needed in the new company or not. He stays busy doing church-related computer projects when he has time, including maintaining the website (www.grbc.net).

Monday, August 20, 2007

He is your life

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 - "... I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days..."

He is your life.
Every blessing is found in God Himself.
Every blessing is given by Him.
Every good thing that I would seek after, if sought apart from God, will not be enjoyed to its fullest; for He gives good things, not that we might revel in the things themselves, but that we might revel in the Giver.

Yes, He "sends rain on the just and on the unjust", and showers many blessings on those who care nothing for Him. But these will be witnesses against them in the last day, that though they received so many good things from the God of Heaven, they neither glorified Him for them, nor were thankful. (Matt.5:45. Rom.1:21).

What is it your heart longs for?
Only God can truly be "your life". That which utterly satisfies the human soul.
Every longing, every dream, pursued apart from the Source of all good things, will only disappoint us in the end.

Seek first the God who made you - for He made you for Himself.
Nothing else is able to fill His place in you.
If you have Him - only will then every blessing be truly enjoyed as He meant it to be.

He is your life.

Friday, July 20, 2007

sacrifice

"You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter..." (Deut.16:11).

Israel in the Old Testament could come to worship God, and He commanded them to come and "rejoice before the LORD your God." They could rejoice, not because they were good enough to please Him, nor for anything in themselves - but because when they worshiped, they brought the sacrifice commanded by God.

Something outside themselves, to atone for their own sin. There was no thinking they were pleasing God by their moral lives, or their charitable deeds. Coming with only good works would not make them accepted. And without acceptance, there can be no rejoicing before God, for He is angry with those break His laws.

Is this not a picture of true religion today? We cannot rejoice before God based on our own merits, hoping "the goods outweigh the bads", and that that will be enough for God. Perfect justice demands punishment for all law-breaking. We can only rejoice before God the same way that Israel did: by trusting in the sacrifice of Another - in Jesus Christ who died to atone for our sins, to appease the wrath of a just God.

This is surely the only way to "rejoice before God" when we come to worship. To come trusting in the Sacrifice of something outside ourselves, as that by which God will accept us and our worship - that by which God will rejoice over us, and therefore we can also rejoice in Him!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

baby steps

Emily just keeps doing new things. A few days ago she actually stood up by herself for a few seconds (both hands were busy holding something).

She also started saying "please" (well, the clap-your-hands sign for please) when she wants something. It started as just "please" for "I want a drink" and has expanded, today, to "please" meaning "more of what we were just doing", like "more tickles".

Today she successfully got herself OFF the Vitalizer (exercise trampoline) by getting on her stomach and backing up - without my doing or saying anything to prompt it. She likes to get on there and try to bounce herself up and down while she's sitting on it.

Her first "words" were not mama, dada - but "ta, ta" while pointing at something she wasn't to touch, meaning "don't touch!" Now she says "nyoh, nyoh" or "noh, noh" when pointing and things she knows not to touch (though she often goes ahead and touches them anyway).

She likes to wander down the hall into Katherine's room to wake her up from a nap (to Katherine's, and sometimes Mommy's, chagrin). She loves her big sister!

She likes to make a mess too. To take the clean clothes out of the laundry basket and toss them on the floor one by one. Or pull everything off the little table next to the couch (needless to say, we don't leave much on there on a regular basis).

She keeps being able to reach higher and higher to grab magnets off the fridge - especially Katherine's foam letter magnets, which if Emily gets, she loves to put in her mouth and "gum" them for awhile, till Mommy notices and fishes them out.

"Babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow..." yet at the same time, it would be more sorrowful if they didn't progress in ability. So thank you, Lord, for normalcy, and for a fun little girl who is growing so fast!

Fear Not

We so easily worry over many things - things that we fear will happen; and we fear that if they happen... well, we don't know what, but surely it will be a bad thing, if they happen. Unknown situations that we have not been in before, and how will we handle them? Or we fear that if a current situation that is uncomfortable is not resolved soon, then we won't be able to keep dealing with it.

We think that for us to have joy or peace or stability, we "must have" that job that is so needed, or that child we desperately long for, or restored health; or we fear that we will lose the job that we have, or the health of the present, or that the child we do have will be taken from us.

But we aren't supposed to know ahead of time, what exactly will happen in our lives, and how we will handle it. God decides that. Instead we are to rest in knowing Jesus. Knowing that He who "loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood", still loves us and is waiting for us in the unknown future, to walk with us there as He does in the present.

God knows, and we usually forget, that this world is but His training ground for the real Life to come. That what is seen is not lasting reality, but what is unseen. That the development of our souls is what matters more than that job, or that child, or our health. For those who love Him, He is their loving Father who truly does have their good in the works.

Yet even when we remember that He "works all together for good to those who love Him", we think we need to worry anyway, because we don't trust that His plans will be what we want, and we fear that He will put things in our lives that we don't like. We think we know better than He does, what is good for us.

But if we really love Him who died to save us from His own wrath over our sin, who by His death brought us peace with God (how amazing!), then we will have peace in leaving our unknowns in His hand too. We will believe that He who did the greatest thing - giving up His life - will surely do the lesser things for us too; that He really does love us and desire our ultimate good, even when we cannot see how the present (or the feared future) could possibly do us good. We will rest in that love of Jesus toward us.

And is He not enough? To have Jesus, the One who loves us and makes us able to come to God without fear (though with godly fear) - this is greater than poor health, or unfulfilled longings, or meager finances. When Jesus is everything to me, then I can sing with Habakkuk, that though all my circumstances seem to be against me and I cannot see a way out,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength...


...
and He would have me rest and rejoice in Him. "Perfect love casts out fear."

(verses quoted: Rev.1:5. Rom.8:28. Hab.3:17-19. 1Jn.4:18.)

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Kid News - May 2007

May has flown by!

Katherine: turned 3 on the 28th.

Current favorite things: the old Fisher Price "Chatterphone". Silly Putty (birthday present). Still enjoys TuxPaint, but not Starfall as much. Still likes her "Eye-Block", though it's no longer as prominent in her playing. Still likes the Carl books (we currently have borrowed "Carl's Birthday" from the library). Oh, and she likes putting money in the "moffering" at church. It's very cute.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emily: almost 10 months old.

She likes to stand up and "cruise" around, though she's not standing or walking independently yet. She loves to eat food (except too much sweet potato), and her top two front teeth are finally coming in.

Though easy-going as far as not fussing over odd things happening, she's also very determined and slightly stubborn, not quickly sidetracked from whatever she had set her mind on doing at the time.

Some kids carry around a blankie... some carry around a stack of square Duplo blocks (preferably blue and red - or at least, a stack with no yellow in it)


Emily likes to be bounced


Posing with Daddy


~~~~~~~~~~~~

In May we went strawberry picking several times, though the season ended at the end of the month when we got a spell of hotter weather.


Looking at the goats at a strawberry farm


Sitting in the grass


Strawberry picking at another farm. Katherine most liked playing with the flag instead (flags marked where people had stopped picking on a given row).


Guess what, Mom? I do like strawberries!


We celebrated Katherine's 3rd birthday at a family dinner when her cousin Collin was in town.



Carrot cake, at her request - though she really ate more ice cream than cake.


Trying to open presents


Jessica and Collin


Grandma and Emily


Daddy helping Katherine try out her new talking globe (thanks to Aunt Julia who found it at the thrift shop!)... I think Daddy and Mommy enjoy it more than she does, though she likes to make it play music from different countries.


making a face... probably impatient to be fed



Then at the end of May, we got to go visit Krista (Deutschmann) Albee, who just had her 2nd baby. She and her family live about 30 minutes from us.

Emily eating an animal cookie that she stole from Katherine's cup


Krista and Jack (who just woke up) posing with Katherine


Katherine with Emily-dog (who mostly tried to escape toddler affection)


Not so sure about Madschen...


... but still trying to play with her


Tuesday, May 29, 2007

God and money

"You cannot serve God and mammon" (money, material things).

You cannot trust - or live for - God AND stuff. It's one or the other.
Only one thing can hold highest place in our affections.
Here in America, it's easy to give that spot to money, stuff, material things. To build up our retirement accounts, trusting them to care for us in our old age.
To work in order to earn money, so we can have money to "do whatever we want". So we can have security, or so we think.

Why do we have a hard time trusting God with everything, instead of trusting our money?
We think we are wiser than God. That if we really trust God, if we really live as He would have us to live, if we really used our money for the Kingdom instead of as a security blanket - that He would put us in the poorhouse, and we would have no happiness. We think we will be happier with money, than with God. That building up Monopoly money here is worth more than accumulating treasure in Heaven. We trust what we see, because it is now, rather than the God we cannot see, who has promised future things. And who has promised to provide all that we need if we live for the Kingdom first (Matt.6:24,33).

We forget that the One who gave everything to save our souls, does love us here. That if He takes our money, He will give us something better. Is it not the poor who love Him most? It is those who trust Him with everything that find Him to be everything. It is those with little who rejoice most in the God they cannot see. Maybe God would take our money in order to give us Himself. Is that not a better trade?

Our God is in the heavens;
He does all that He pleases...
...trust in the LORD!
He is their help and their shield.
The LORD has remembered us; He will bless us...
He will bless those who fear the LORD,
both the small and the great.

(Ps.115:3,11-13, ESV)

Sunday, May 20, 2007

from His hand

The grass often seems greener
where other people serve God.
surely they do great things
worthwhile things
but I, I seem to stagnate here
I wonder what will last
of all I do.

Changing diapers
folding clothes
reading books to little ones...
my ever-present fight with clutter,
errands to run
bedtime again -
all seems so mundane
so useless in the scheme of things

... and thinking so
I find that I forgot His ways -
the mystery of how
"little" in the world's eyes
may be "great" in His

forgot that Jesus said
"the Father Himself loves you" -
and when I live in light of that
I see aright again
that every moment comes
from His hand
given in love
for purposes that sometimes
He alone will understand

and if every moment
comes from Him
than I receive it gladly
happy again to be
but an unworthy servant
yet more -
a child of God
loved and precious to Him

we were redeemed
to live "no longer for ourselves
but for Him who died for [us] and rose again"
and this we can do
no matter where He puts us

your life will not be wasted
if you live to serve your King
tending the plot of ground
which He has lent to you

serving His Kingdom
serving His people
loving His people
even by a prayer
an encouragement
a cup of cold water in His name
He does not forget
such "labors of love"
service rendered unto Him
even in some obscure,
unseen place

"if He had asked you to do some great thing,
would you not have done it?
How much more then,
when He asks you to do
something small?"

may I remember
and be reminded
that it is an honor
to serve Him in something small
and to be faithful there

to leave to Him
the arranging of my life
my times
my sorrows and joys
and to receive gladly
every moment
from His loving hand


(Bible verses referred to: John 16:27. 2Corinthians 5:15. Matthew 10:42. Hebrews 6:10. 2Kings 5:13)

Monday, May 14, 2007

stairs

Today while we were outside, Emily climbed our whole flight of steps leading to the front door. As if she had always done that. She's done a step or two here and there, but not that much at once. Steps are so irresistible to babies.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

losing your life

In service which Thy will appoints
There are no bonds for me;
My secret heart is taught the truth
That makes Thy children free:
A life of self-renouncing love
Is one of liberty.

In God's paradox, self-denial (serving others rather than yourself) is more satisfying than self-indulgence, and the way to save your life is to lose it. The way to exaltation is humility.

To be like Jesus is to "be a servant to all", which means you don't mind being treated as a servant. Gratification is often delayed, and your reward or recognition may never come until your life is over - until you enter into Real Life, where we will see God's face!

to live is Christ, and to die is gain!

"If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily
and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
(Lk.9:23-24, ESV).

(Philippians 2:3-4,14-15; 1:27. Ephesians 4:1-3).

Monday, April 30, 2007

Kid News - April 2007

Katherine: 2 yrs, 11 mos. old

Current favorite...
Things to do:
- play on the computer (www.starfall.com, a learn-to-read website, or play with TuxPaint, a free program for kids) - now that she has in large part learned how to make the mouse on the computer do what she wants it to do.
- play outside with water. Scooping water out of a large container into smaller ones. Filling items from our recycle bin (which lives on the deck) with water and sunflower seed hulls and dirt (since we feed sunflower seeds to the squirrels and birds on our deck). Play outside in general - hooray for spring!

Toys: Duplos. The Eye-Block (see my prior post).

Books: Carl's Christmas and Carl Goes Shopping. Sometimes, she likes the kids' version of the Little House books. I recently swapped out most of the paper-page books on her living room shelf with board books, since Emily learned how to take them off the shelf. So now Katherine is rediscovering (and liking again) her old board books too.

Fun things she has said:
- "I'm going on this coaster to Coster-ica (Costa Rica)" (well, it was a hot pad for a pan, not a coaster, but that's what she called it as she put it on the floor and sat on it.)
- "Notch is climbing the screen saver." (Notch is one of the only squirrels we can identify, and she knows that if she climbs the screen of our sliding glass doors, we'll pay attention to her and feed her with some sunflower seeds.)

Ongoing mispronunciations:
- "new-seum" (museum - referring to the children's museum that her Grandma Peggy took her to some time ago)
- "smelling things" (she means, sPelling things with her alphabet magnets on the fridge).


Cousin Collin was here for a visit


She loves to be tickled


She wanted me to take a picture of her finger


On Daddy's shoulders for a wild ride to her bed


Coloring in Sunday School




Emily: 9 mos. old

Happy playing with rods

She now crawls mostly on hands and knees, though occasionally still uses an army crawl instead. She's getting faster every day. Today for the first time (April 30), she started "cruising" - walking her way around the footstool in the living while standing up at it. Today she also successfully climbed up onto our Vitalizer (exercise trampoline) several times, which she had never done before. Now we get to teach her how to get OFF safely...

"Standing" up

She eats anything (almost) that you give her, edible or not. The inedible things get rolled around in her mouth until Mommy notices and says the refrain of the day, "What are you eating?!" and fishes it out. Anything from crumbs in the kitchen (I could sweep three times a day...) to acorn tops and sunflower seed hulls and bits of string. At least she's never choked on anything, and doesn't seem to try to swallow the inedible things. Yet.


Is this banana peel edible?


I'm not sure...


She finally learned how to eat Cheerios by herself (instead of grabbing one with her whole hand and then putting her thumb in her mouth while still holding the Cheerio in her hand)

She's extremely easy-going, not easily fazed by things out of the ordinary, like getting sat on or bumped, or falling over (unless it really hurts or scares her).

She likes to play with whatever Katherine is playing with (sometimes to Katherine's chagrin... a common refrain is "no, Emily, no, no, don't play with that!")

Whatever Katherine is playing with must be interesting

Duplos

Sometimes the lid is more fun to play with than the Duplos

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Eye Block

Katherine's new favorite item is the "Eye Block" - the Duplo square piece that has an eye on two sides so that you can use it to make an "animal" with eyes. Her initial reaction upon seeing it was little short of terror. I made an animal with it and showed her how the eyes on the block made the animal have eyes, and suddenly in the space of minutes, the Eye Block went from a source of terror to her favorite item in the world (for now).


After making animals with it for a week or two, she switched to just playing with the block by itself, carrying it around, etc. We've nearly lost it a few times because she'll take it with her to her room or elsewhere and then leave it and forget where she put it. She still somewhat likes Schtoompah and his tuba, and at least she'll say his name now (she used to avoid saying it); she sometimes still puts her blanket over her head to say it's her "tuba". And she still likes to see cement trucks when we pass them on the road. But the Eye Block definitely wins over them both at the moment.

Emily is crawling

After 3 months of "army crawling", Emily has finally started to crawl on hands and knees. She started a few days ago and is slowly doing more of it each day.

Oh, and she is suddenly into everything. I used to be able to assume that she'd be generally where I left her, and playing with what I expected. Now she is increasingly reaching more, moving faster, and trying to eat every speck of fuzz and dirt that she can find.

She's definitely "her own little person", and a sweet one! She's still getting me up at least once a night to nurse, but I love her anyway and know they all outgrow it someday. Sometimes she needs her "Mommy time" - after getting up from her afternoon nap, she'll often want to be held (or carried in the baby carrier) for half an hour or so, and then she's happy to be down and doing her usual things.

I thought this only happened in Iowa...


... snow at Easter time! Well, the day before Easter. Granted, it melted by midday, but still, few here can recall any other time in recent years where we had snow in central NC in April.

Emily's first snow to get out in

Eating snow (well, it was more like little chunks of ice)

One effect of the weather-down-to-the-20's on Easter weekend was that many of the apple and peach crops of NC will be small this year. The trees had already budded, and the hard freeze killed most of the blooms. One news article estimates that up to 90% of NC's apple and peach crops could be gone this year, and possibly 40% of our blueberry crops too. Some farmers lost everything this year. What a mercy, to know that even though we don't understand, our God is still in control of the weather and our lives.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Not My Home

I woke up too early and couldn't fall asleep again this morning, thinking about all the things that were wrong with the world (or with my little world), and frustrated at not being able to make things be "as they ought to be" - whether it relates to getting large groups of ladies together to pray for missions - or the thought of some wacko liberal getting elected as president next year (neither of which are under my control).

So often I carry with me a vague downcast spirit, because so much is wrong with the world. People we know of get sick and die. Children get inoperable tumors. Friends who wish for children are infertile. Fruit trees die of bugs and disease (ok, maybe that's not in the same category - but it's still disappointing). Work (for husband and friends) becomes unfulfilling.

We are chasing "the American Dream" - that elusive ideal of a great job, happy children, a nice house, and healthy bodies. And we want it without death, pain, disease, or sorrow added in. We imagine that heaven can exist on this earth, and are downcast when it never materializes.

This world will never be heaven - not till it is made new. If we but realized this, and lived for what really lasts - the things unseen - then all the disappointments would not drag us down so much.

We would see Earth as but the place we sojourn in, and not as home. We would remember that the goal we pursue here is not, a worry-free, pain-free, disease-free life; it is rather, to bring glory to God in the midst of the trials of life.

God doesn't want us to get comfortable here. He sends us trials and disappointments to remind us that this is not Home; to help us to live for what we do not see. To live by faith, and not by sight. To love Him the Giver, instead of making idols of His gifts. To be happy in God and not in circumstances.

To live here in America as though we were our friends in the Far East; they don't settle down in their adopted country and try to make it be "the good life" there, and get downcast every time there is a difficulty. They go, knowing there will be daily hardships, and accepting those, having as their goal, to glorify God among the heathen, rather than to pursue a trial-free, pain-free life. If we lived so here, as strangers in an adopted land, rather than as citizens who strived for comfort, we would rejoice in God and labor for Him with greater zeal.

This world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through...

Monday, April 9, 2007

"Your timer's beeping, Mommy!"

Several days ago I was down the hall in a bedroom and heard my timer in the kitchen going off. I didn't go immediately to turn it off, and heard Katherine say "Your timer's beeping, Mommy!" This is the first time I remember her addressing me as "Mommy". She would talk about me, or to me, but never call for me by my name, or use my name in asking me something. It's cute - now she'll tack on "Mommy" or "Daddy" to many of her "running commentary on life" comments, if one of us is around, as if to share her comments with us rather than talking to herself (or at least before, we had to guess as to which it was - talking to us or to herself). Just one more little step of verbal progress (which, we thank the Lord, is not lacking!).

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Kid News - March 2007

Katherine: 2 yrs, 10 months old.

She likes to be outside; it's a blessing to have a fenced-in back yard. She finds flowers and sticks and rocks, and puts things in the abandoned chipmunk hole under one of the trees.

One of her current games with Daddy is to put something in his pocket, which for some reason is "supposed" to be "big cats" (i.e., leopard, tiger, ocelot, etc., all from her play animal set of "Big Cats"). Of course, whatever she puts in his pocket, never is such things, so when Daddy pulls them out and "discovers" that they are not Big Cats, she says "you get..." (meaning she will get... tickles or pokes or something like that) and then Daddy goes to tickle her.

It seems she is getting more willing to interact with people who are not Mommy, Daddy, or grandparents, and even to play with other children. For which we are so thankful, since she would immediately shy away from others and want them to go away. We pray this new trend will continue and improve more.

Here are some pictures from March:


Dollies eating... bugs?


Setting up the bugs for the dollies to eat (she calls the dollies her "friends" - "look, all my friends!" when she sees the screen saver pictures of them)


Dollies eating... numbers, apparently


Wearing Emily's clothes


Magna-doodle fun




Emily: almost 8 months old.

She's growing fast. Her first tooth came in yesterday, and thankfully, she hasn't seemed much bothered by teething except for last night, when she couldn't seem to get back to sleep until we gave her some tylenol.

She started sitting up by herself a few days ago, and seems so proud of herself that she can do it.
She likes to watch the animals outside; we have glass doors out onto the deck, and we feed the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks on the deck. (See photos below). She likes to play with the piles of sunflower seed hulls when the door is left open.

She can crawls very fast, but still only crawls on her tummy. She has figured out how to go find Mommy down the hall if she's left alone in the living room. She's eating cereal, and has tried banana, sweet potato, applesauce, pears, and squash; she doesn't seem to dislike anything you give her.

She likes to be tickled and to play peek-a-boo. She likes to see cards with pictures on them (e.g. of fruits or birds) and likes the big word cards of different body parts (nose, knee, etc.), though I haven't been very consistent in showing them to her.

Here are some pictures from March:


I guess this grass stuff isn't so bad after all


Playing with favorite toys


Emily on the "big kids" side of the nursery (sucking her thumb there in the middle; she does that - lie down leaning on one arm and suck her other thumb). We had to put her on the toddler side of the nursery because she was too mobile for the non-mobile baby side; she would take the other children's toys and play with them herself.


Looking so proud of herself, sitting up


How does this glass stuff work??


Watching the squirrels (and chipmunk, who is climbing up on the table)


Watching the squirrels and birds again


Emily's favorite fridge toy