A Little Lull

Just letting you all know, there may be a lull for a little while in my posting. A good while ago my computer's mother-board bit the dust. I had borrowed a computer for a little while, but we're still looking for a permanent fix to this situation. The computer I borrowed needed to be returned before we were able to fix the situation. So for the next little while, Matt and I will be sharing his work computer (which is only available to me when he's home). This really isn't a big deal, people, because the emails and posts can wait - they're not life-sustaining. =) 

But I will miss the fun as we continue to figure this puzzle piece out. =) 

So know I still love you all, even if I am quiet for a while. =)

The Romance of a Place

We loaded up and headed to a small-town church this morning. The Pastor was away for the holiday and asked Matt to fill-in preaching. There were ten people total in the congregation. Matt, I and the girls made up four. Then there was a 7 or 8 year old grandson. So once the children were dismissed and I got settled back down after changing baby's diaper, there were a whoppin' five in the service, including me.

The service began at 10:30a. Matt and I got delayed in our commute due to me forgetting my guitar in the shovel out the door, but ended up being the first people there at 10:20a. At 10:27a, a local attendee arrived, followed by the music leader and his grandson at 10:28a, who was able to let us into the building. At 10:32a, there were still us seven. Matt asked if we should start, smiling at the fact that our family outnumbered the attendees. We were informed to wait for more. Two more came in together, one of which was the Sunday School teacher. After introducing my girls to the nursery toy stash (praise the Lord!) the final congregation member arrived.

No one minded the toddler "praise" occurring in our row as the first 6 (seriously, SIX) hymns were sung (at least 3-4 verses a piece). And pacing in the side row with a baby on your hip didn't even bat an eye. I was still grateful to have remembered to put away the walking toy Abi had found so amusing before the start of church. All we needed to complete the service was a melt-down over who would push the walking toy back to the nursery before the sermon. I'm not even sure if anyone would have noticed a good ole fashioned toddler fall-out tantrum. Graciousness poured from the small bunch.

No one payed any mind to the "Jesus loves me" chorus from the nearby Sunday school room amid Matt's sermon. Rachael's voice sailing in competition of the microphone. Giggles and running feet from the other room were merely a part of Matt's sermon.

We ate at a local diner after church, slightly annoyed by the girls' sugar high post snack cookies. Rachael explained how she learned about Tangled at Sunday School and that Jesus healed someone at a hospital and "another guy was forgived by Jesus because he was a bad guy". I still have no idea what the lesson was, but the butter-rolls were a hit. The grilled-cheese sandwich partial-crusts proved their toddler success.

The drive home included one passed-out baby with head tilted toward the ceiling and a toddler zoning through slit-eyes until her body gave in. Matt chuckled as he heard snoring from the backseat. I pondered the romance of the rural country with a background of AM Radio Sunday afternoon football playing and a husband immersed. Rain fell as thoughts of the romance in working the land with your hands, keeping up with the house chores, and raising the kids consumed me. I remembered the short conversation Matt and I had as we waited outside the church, after walking the small block and looking in all the storefront windows with the girls. "What if a small store-front church called you and asked you to be the Pastor and live above the church, what would you say?" "I'd say yes," he smiled, "As long as the apartment fit our family." We both smiled, remembering our family motto to serve the Lord wherever He may call.

And I was reminded again that it is not the place, but the enjoyment of the romance of the place that brings such joy. Seeing the joy and delight in the everyday normals. Finding the bliss in the here and nows, even if the here and nows are drastically different from one day to the next. It's the reminiscing on the present as if it is told in the future to a circle of grandkids. Enjoying life as it is given to you as a gift from our Father in Heaven.

I wonder if God delights in my delights.


And I know He does.


Enjoy your rainy Sunday, friends.

Error... Recomputing.

I'm going to have to think/type quick for this post because I only have a half hour until Mike is coming to beat to death a pipe in our wall that keeps spewing forth washer drainage (mmm, yes!)

But I wanted to take a minute to share something with you, reader(s). (If you exist out there.)

Yesterday I went to get my hair trimmed. I like to go to a beauty school for a few reasons 1. Can't beat $8 for a wash, condition and trim  and 2. Refer to #1.

While sitting and chatting with the student who was trimming my hair (kinda funny to talk with someone who's squatting on the floor to trim your hair - guess it's a little long these days), the student, mom of 2 preschool kids, mentioned in an outpouring of how smart kids are "these days" that she believed "parents are better parents these days, then they have been in the past." I thought that one through for a quick second and replied, "Maybe some," to which she semi-recanted that she agreed that not all parents were good parents.

Thinking over this concept, I'd have to personally disagree. While some new "technologies" have allowed parents to be more effective *ahem, the cloth diaper*, I personally think that the new wave of "selfish parenting" that is on the rise kind of hurts that theory. Many parents, check out the commercials, are not parenting for the benefit of their children, but instead in order to shape the child to best glorify the parent. Don't I sound like a conservative crazy?

Just in thinking about it, so many parents dress up their kids for the soul purpose of making them look good. And then there's the "I don't care" population that is letting their kids control everything; the child-rearing, the marriage, the schedule.

I can imagine there must have been this same kind of thinking in every generation. But I believe, at least from my current viewpoint, that many parents are getting worse. The concept of family is drifting from "quality time around the table together" to meals in the car on the way to the massively-packed schedule that "must be kept up."

We all pick our lifestyles. But I just have to say that the more I think about how my mom parented my sister and I, the better Mom I am. Sure she made her mistakes. But her heart was prioritizing our whole good - not just giving in to the moment to get us to shut up (though I could testify to the utter temptation at times). My mom gave up so much to invest in Jes and I. She took the extra time-consuming steps to raise us to the best of her ability. She evaluated herself and tried to leave "the bad" behind in an effort to give us her best. She didn't idolize us, she didn't shelter us from all consequences, she didn't hide us away from reality. But she sure did put her heart and soul into molding us into the people we are today.

I guess if my mom were lazy, disconnected, or self-focused then I could agree with the student's statement that just maybe my parenting could be better than my mom's. But looking through the lens I have been so blessed to see through... I disagree. I think the beauty student spoke in error. I don't think parents are better parents these days, then they have been in the past. I believe it is the job of every parent to submit to Christ and then let your parenting be an outpouring of your heart of service.

Thanks, Mom, for helping me catch that error.

Domestic Me

(cue music) "Watch this is so fun to see. Oh... despicable me..."

Well, maybe not despicable, but certainly domestical me. =) Alright, alright... just "domestic me".


When Rachael was 11 months old I "retired" from the working world and became a homemaker, housewife, and wonderfully unemployed me. Beginning my second trimester of Abi-pregnancy goodness and keeping track of my 11 month old at the time was a whole new challenge. It's been a learning curve as we've gone through different stages and new challenges have arisen throughout the past two years. There have been moments of tears and moments of great triumph in mastering a regular order to the house and intentionally offering myself to my kids. Matt has been more than generous in lending a hand to keep things going during the "newborn: will we even get sleep again?" phase, the Abi-crying phase, and the various challenges in balancing life and kids. I could not have asked for a greater teammate at life.

With increased balance and mastery of the house/child rearing, I have taken on a few "projects" of my own. I am finding the utter delight in mastering and contributing to my family through my "projects". The laundry/cleaning was one of my projects - finding that attainable balance of daily contribution and preventing the utter pile-up.

 - multi-tasking -

Homeschooling is one of my projects. And while it certainly will become a necessity in educating the kids, right now it is such a fun research, curriculum writing adventure of being intentional to instill Christ (to the best of my ability) in my kids. Christ is the one who takes up residence in somone's heart, but I sure can be intentional about watering and planting.

And then there's my very recent project: diapering. My sister in law, Ellen, was wonderfully kind to allow me the borrowed use of my nephew's old cloth diapers. Now while cloth diapering may sound ridiculous to some, disposable diapers are quite expensive and for an investment upfront (which thanks to Ellen was near nothing for us this far), you can diaper and re-diaper for "free". "Free" includes the regular price of laundry soap (really it's about a load or two more per week since the diapers can go through with your regular laundry). I'm trying out cloth diapering after Abi's repetitive rashes, highly irritable skin, and the luxury of being available to tend to her diaper needs promptly if need be. But thus far, count me in that crazy bracket. =)

It's all about trying to do better with what you are responsible to do. Christ has given me the wonderful chance to serve Him through my family and I have to say... it really is a blessing.


Thanks, dear blog, for letting me share a slice of my domestic life here.

Sandcastles

Between Sunday night touchdowns we enjoyed writing it. We laughed about the illustration, building with a dirt foundation and creating a flood. We giggled about the idea of sticks falling all over the place and the utter joy of permitted destruction coming upon the face of a child. We laughed until tears came to our eyes as we thought of accidentally knocking down the building built on rocks and trying to explain that God does a better job at building than this demonstration. And then we sent the lesson overseas with a prayer and a smile. 

Nothing can describe the joy I felt in my heart when I found these two wonderful pictures in my inbox this evening.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand...

And you know what happened. 

(Love that this picture captures Auntie Theresa and the new Uncle Ayuba, I presume, in the mix too. How cool!)

Oh but the wise man...

I read over the account of the Bible lesson's success and my heart leaped within me. Thank you, Jesus, for orchestrating such joy and such a blessing in my life.

I just love my little Nigerian kids and their Aunties (and now Uncle).

- to God be the glory.
- love and hugs to Theresa and Will.

The Littlest

She just makes me smile so much.

Hoping these pictures help you smile too.

Welcome to her world...

 Snorkeling in the tub.

 Cracking up about who knows what.

No she wasn't crying, actually she was laughing.
Check out those molars! 

Yeah.. you know we were up in the middle of the night for those honkers...

 Watching Rachael do Ring Around the Rosey.

 Personality for sure.

Love that little baby girl...

Not Another One!!!

Yes, yes, I have another homeschool post. Buckle up, people, these may happen periodically.

I wanted to share a fun little project I did with Rachael. We made a book about shapes. Rachael worked very hard on this book, tracing and coloring in each of the shapes. On the backs of each page we traced and colored six of each shape (repetition, repetition, repetition). I don't have pictures of Rachael making this book because between instructing and chasing down Abi as she "borrows" items from the table, I was a little busy.

But alas I share with you one of Rachael's accomplishments:

Her book on Shapes.

These are each of the 8 pages.

These are the backs of each of the pages that had backs to them. 

And this is what little-one does most of the time while we homeschool:

She loves her books.

The following two pictures is a placemat I made for Rachael to aid her identifying of numbers, shapes, letters, and her Bible verses. Since I couldn't find a placemat that had all these things on them, especially not the Bible verses, I just decided to make one. At each meal she can decide which side of the placemat she'd like to face up, and accordingly we get to talk about and rehears that side of the placemat during meal prep and sometimes during the meal itself. Since Rachael just sits at the table nicely many times while we prep/serve the meal I figured it was a good time to use the captive audience wisely. =)

 The front: Rachael's 3 Bible verses. Believe it or not she know the top two and we're working on the last one, "God is love". She almost has it down. We put these verses to song and she picks them up lightning fast!

 The back: letters, numbers, and shapes. Thus far she can ID A, C, E, H, L, and R (her name) and she can ID all the shapes (confusing some occasionally) and 1-10 with some confusion about 9 and the fact that 10 is ten and not 1 and a 0. 

Proud of my little smarty and her excitement for exploring and learning amidst our day of fun and play. She is absorbing much and hungry for much learning too. 

Thanks for checking out our little world.

How It's Been Lately

Posts have been a little slow lately (I know my reader(s) are hungry for my constant news... NOT!).
Between homeschool and watching a little boy (2 y/o) now during the days there has been minimal time to breathe around here. (My last day watching him was today). We just got off of a Discipleship Now weekend with the youth group. I think all enjoyed it. And now comes the usual exhaustion of a completed busy weekend.

I've found myself some time to reflect amid prepping the "new family member" room as we are finishing our last few pieces of adoption paperwork. While I feel like the phrase, "finishing our last few pieces of paperwork" is a lie, it feels nice to say likewise. =) There's always just one more. But that paper takes on another meaning when it brings you that much closer to your new family member.

We did our child survey, identifying all the traits we would or would nit consider tonight. Matt joked that filling out the paperwork during Sunday Night football may have been a mistake.
Me: "Will we consider a child who has been convicted of murder?"
Matt: "YEAH!!! GO, GO, GO!!!!"
Me: "Will we consider a child with the characteristics of honesty?"
Matt: "Man!!! No way!!! What was that?!?!"

=)

I'm looking forward to spending an evening out of the house with no kids (say what?!) with Amanda tomorrow night. I feel like it's been dark ages since we've sat down. And a good cup of hot chocolate at a bookstore is in order for sure. Don't you love how a good Christ-centered conversation leaves you marveling at how quickly the time has passed?

Matt's playing some war video game. I'm sure he loves that I keep asking questions during his relaxing time blowing up of "the enemy forces". It's a boy thing, I tell myself. Girls aren't supposed to understand. ;)

So that's how it's been lately. A little busy, with laundry on the side. And the joy of lazy Sunday afternoon naps and good husband-snuggles during this wonderful football season. 

Looking forward to returning to a less-busy schedule (after the photo shoot, vet appointment, house-cleanup, and girls night out scheduled for tomorrow of course-hehe).

Some errands left to before our final safety audit in this adoption process (lock box, smoke detectors, and a convertible car seat to buy). I'm putting primer paint on my Christmas list. I figure I'll try to get that room painted white and then when we meet/make the matching conference on a child we can ask them what color they'd like their room. Just trying to think of ways to make the room theirs and make them feel welcome.

sigh... alright, that's all for tonight. Thanks for reading my randoms. =)

Happy Sunday night to all!

Who's control is in Control?

You know, I just wanted to take a moment to bring up the interesting conversation/battle of birth control into the topic ring.

I have many times heard the birth control method argued by Christians to be "responsible" and "enabling you to control when you have a kid to best care for the child." I have also heard the conservative approach, and even "excessively" conservative approach argued that "we'll take whatever the Lord gives us."

I find this conversation interesting in terms of the Duggar's new announcement that they are pregnant with their 20th child. So many feel challenged by that information and often throw in their two cents of, "those people are ridiculous" judgement. I could easily find myself in that camp when my kids are obnoxious. I could also find myself in the "test of faith" camp wondering how many other feminist thoughts we are going to try to justify by the Word because the thought of not controlling our family feels uncomfortable and we want to feel justified with our level of control.

Matt and I have had this conversation many times and probably will continue to have this conversation as we continue to surrender our family to the Lord. I agree with him that birth control, whether it be abstaining during your ovulation cycle or a non-abort-effasive method, in many instances can be very responsible. I think it can also be very wrong. I think it boils down to the heart, which is what the Word seems to bring me back to.

Am I saying, "no, I don't want You plan over my own," to the very one I call Lord? Am I saying, "it's not convenient," and viewing children as the "burden" that first began the feminist movement of birth control? Is my heart in line with what God says about kids? Is my mind with Christ's on valuing and delighting in children? And does not being on birth control really mean that I'm going to end up with 30 kids? What about Hannah? Or those in the Bible that were barren? Or those in the Bible that only had a handful of kids?

Or am I using my "faith" in God's plan as a cop-out? Am I being irresponsible in ignoring the things we so clearly know about women's bodies and how and when contraception is at it's most harvest-filled time? Am I being selfish in wanting a particular number of kids and controlling in being non-controlling?

The battle is in the heart. And the surrender, on either side of the argument, is in the heart. But what I do know is that God calls us to self-sacrifice. His Will in exchange for our will. And His Will stretches us and is not comfortable because it defies our fleshly nature. His Will challenges and grows us. And while we can still be Christians and still be controlling, I just know one thing... the Judge looks at the heart to determine who is and who is not sacrificing in worship and evidence of their faith.

Paul states it this way in the Word, that all things are permissible for us, but not all things are good (or beneficial). It is important to weigh out the consequences of either side of this "birth control" argument and surrender our families fully to the Lord. For He even said, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46).

We need to be certain His motives are ours in all things, the make-up of our family included.

- to God be the Glory.

Our Joy and Pride

No one prepares to be blown away... otherwise they'd hang onto something.

Homeschool has been trucking along with this Mommy creating random letter-focused practice sheets for Rachael to do and coming up with various other curriculum ideas and Rachael just going along for the ride. It's been fun to be creative and watch Rachael's discovery and pride in her accomplishments.

We have been slowly working on Rachael's letters in her name each week. Repetition, repetition, repetition in tracing the individual letter per week, recognizing each capital letter in books and amongst other letters, and learning shapes, colors, and numbers along the way. I've been very goal-focused in targeting Rachael's weaknesses (fine motor control) while blending them into her strengths (identifying shapes, colors and numbers). We've had our frustrating days (sigh) and our moments of victories. And then came today's in which I found myself blown away.

We were sitting down to the normal homeschool with an audience of Abi and Rachael's newest "goes with her everywhere" stuffed animal. We were working on squares today, Rachael showing off her advancements in fine motor skills over the past 3 weeks of focus and I decided to try it out... Rachael has learned the letters R, A and C (we're working our way through her name - other letters didn't really sick). Thus far we have only been tracing them because her fine motor skills are *ahem* "age appropriate". This is not a problem, but I do like to challenge her. So I decided to try it out... NO DOTTED LINES....

And man did she blow me out of the water writing the letters she knows...

It's so cool to see her advancements and her increased focus and hear her ecstatic laughter as she masters a skill for the first time.

- love homeschooling.

Some pictures of her work over the past 3 weeks:

Week 1: "R"

Week 2: "A"

Week 3: "C"

We had done other homeschooling prior to this, it was pretty light and didn't focus on writing at all. Then we took a break from it for a while (helpful of homeschool) after I started getting my feet wet so I could reorganize and so life could happen. And then we started into a more "let's get ready for our real written preschool curriculum for the winter" process which I have charted above.

But anyway, thanks for celebrating with us on Rachael's great successes!