Mostly and Less-ly

A few nights ago, the girls asked me if we never have peas anymore because Caeden hates them. It's true; that's why. I have lost my patience too many times trying for hours to get him to eat them, watching him pretend to gag on them, listening to the whining...It's not worth it to me to force him anymore.

So, the girls were thrilled, and actually cheered when peas were set on the table for supper tonight. 

Obviously, Caeden was less excited. We asked him to pray before we ate though.

Part of his dinner prayer:

"Dear God, thank you mostly for the food, but less-ly for the peas..."

Going Up

This picture isn't very good, but it represents a sweet moment and a reminder of many others.

All afternoon and evening, Sylvia was saying her legs were sore from playing a game called Grasshoppers and Giants at church yesterday.  Apparently the grasshoppers do squatting jumps...I'm not familiar with the game.  Anyway, when she'd go up or down the stairs, she'd howl a bit.  So she asked her daddy if he would carry her upstairs at bedtime and tuck her in.

Her daddy was more than happy to grant that request, as she is still pretty small and he is still pretty strong.  But, he did mention that she hadn't asked him to carry her up the stairs in a long time.  And that was a realization of a tradition that has slipped away unnoticed over the past couple years...

Sylvia and Annah used to ask Jeremy to carry them upstairs every evening.  And he would carry them both up--one in each arm.  So many times I would stand at the bottom of the stairs and watch my strong husband carry his sweet, admiring, tiny little girls up all 16 squeaky stairs...knowing that someday they would be too big for him to do that.  I'm sure he could carry them both now if he needed to, and he can definitely carry either of them separately. But they rarely ask, because they are growing up so much. 

It just made us pause and remember those sweet times of Daddy carrying his kids up the stairs, and we were thankful for one more time.

Vision Sunday

It's been quite a week around here.  We'll just say that Pastor Todd has been "under the weather" this week, and wasn't able to be with us for Vision Sunday today.  At first, it seemed odd that we wouldn't have the man who actually had the vision and led us in making it happen there with us to present it, but then Todd reminded me that it wasn't just him who had the vision--it was all of us on the launch team.

So, God was really with us and helping us all today.  This morning, when I had some quiet time with Him in His word, He led me to one of my very favorite chapters of the Bible--Phillipians 4.  Ahhh, I could soak there for years!!  Oh, the reminders there...to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS...to let my gentleness be evident to all (forever one of my most convicting verses)...to not be anxious but instead to pray and be thankful (one of my most healing verses)...the reminder that God will give us peace even when it doesn't make sense and guard our hearts and minds!!  The reminder about what things to think about is always good--the whatevers that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy...yes!  This is always comforting!  For me, these scriptures right here have changed my entire outlook on life.  I love them and the God who gave them!

Those verses I have clung to and read and re-read so many times over the years.  But verse 9, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." I had never really thought much of until today.  It is Paul speaking to the early church at Phillipi, reminding them that they knew what to do even when he wasn't with them. He was assuring them, "Hey, I've taught you about Jesus. I've modeled how to live a Christian life. I've showed you how to tell others about Jesus. I'm not going to be around forever, but it's okay because you know what to do. So do it!"  

That was a great assurance to me this morning, as God led us through Vision Sunday.  It was a wonderful service!  The Holy Spirit was with us, worship was powerful, we found strength in gathering with our family of believers!

(Here is the worship band, practicing at 8:30 this morning. We had a great time of worship!)

In PoC Kidz, they do a "Mission Impossible" theme on Vision Sundays...lots of fun.

God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.

Sweet Friends

Annah and Sylvia had a sweet pair of sisters come for a sleepover last night.  Savanna and Sierra are long-time friends of ours through church.  Our families have helped plant a church together, the girls take piano lessons with me, and their dad is one of our pastors.  They are about to move to Texas in a few weeks!  We are excited for them and their new adventure, but we are going to miss them TONS!!

Last night, they watched The Lorax on dvd, and also the "special feature" with one of the movie's cartoonists showing how to draw the characters.  Aren't their pictures adorable?!

Both yesterday afternoon and this morning, the girls played a lot of Wii--including several Just Dance games and some Disney Sing It games and DDR.  

They all had fun together, and will add this to their list of good times shared!

Broken Hearted

Caeden had been invited for a sleepover with Reece tonight, and when he found out about it he nearly hyperventilated; he was so excited.  But, when Addie (Reece's sister) got sick at school and had to go home, we had to cancel the sleepover.  Caeden's teacher just delivered a message to him at school that he was supposed to ride the bus home instead of going with Reece.  

The kids came home on the bus while I was on the phone about church business.  I could see instantly that Caeden was upset and tearing up.  He whispered to me, "Am I still going?!" And when I shook my head no, he began full-out crying.   Clearly, he'd not received the full explanation of why he had to ride the bus home.  

I try hard not to be on the phone when the kids get home from school, but it was unavoidable today, and that was not good timing.  By the time I got off the phone, Caeden understood that there would be no sleepover, and he was completely broken-hearted!  I tried to talk to him about it, explain that Addie didn't want to be sick, offer for him to get to do something special with Daddy tonight instead, promise there would be other chances for sleepovers...But, he was so upset, he just cried and said thinks like, "I'm just so sad!  I'll never be happy again!  I don't want to do something special with Daddy!  Nothing is going to make me happy again!"  Oh my it was dramatic.

After a few minutes, I decided he'd had enough explanation, and I just needed to let him be sad for a while.  I told him he could cry on me, or go to his room and cry, but he needed to not be angry or destructive.  He happened to then remember he'd earned a new puzzle at school, so he got that out and focused on putting it together.  That helped.

Soon, the girls' friends arrived and they started playing together.  Fortunately, they included Caeden.  When Jeremy came home, he had stopped by the store for a few groceries and also picked up a little Lego Star Wars set for Caeden.  Well, that was more than enough to bring Caeden back to happiness.  He took it upstairs right away and put it together.  Daddy saves the day!!

After supper, he chose a Goofy dvd, and he and I snuggled up in my bed to watch it.  I fell asleep, but when it was over, he went back downstairs and watched another movie with Daddy and all the girls.  

I'm glad that, even though he was thoroughly broken hearted, it was easy to mend.  

Blessed by my friend

This is my friend Dawn.  She is a blessing to me every day.  I'm usually even fortunate enough to get to see her face-to-face several days a week--for her piano lesson, for her daughter Addie's piano lesson, at our Moms In Prayer group, usually for some school event, or just because our families are getting together for one reason or another.  Over the past week, she has given 3 days to help me with a project, and I'm so incredibly grateful!

You may remember the gorgeous red shelves Dawn's husband Shannon built for our den project a couple years ago...

Well, when he built those, he also built two more sections with 7 adjustable shelves like the center section.  They've been waiting for me for to prime and paint them so Shannon can install them in our living room.  

So, over the past week, Dawn and I sanded the shelves and cabinets, blew off the dust, wiped them down, primed them with oil based primer, sanded them again, blew off the dust, wiped them down, and painted them with two coats of "Brown Velvet" semi-gloss paint.  (And, boy, do they look pretty!)

It was much less work with Dawn's help, and we had such fun chatting and listening to Disney music, and talking about life.  She and Shannon were extra kind to let me spread this mess out in Shannon's workshop for a week, and they even heated it so we could work and the pain would dry well.  AND, Dawn fed me lunch while I was there too!  I just feel so blessed and fortunate to have friends who give so much!

I'm excited to see the shelves in our living room someday soon!  It will really help the function of our living room--and the look!  :)

"Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor." 

- Romans 12:10

Crafty Gift

Sylvia is very excited to see her friend Eliza at her birthday party tomorrow.  She misses her since she moved away in August.  When she visited her in October, she admired her bright pink and zebra room decor.  We made this for Eliza's birthday gift and hope she'll be happy to to hang it in her room.

Acts Quiz #2

Whew, the book of Acts is good stuff!  Whew, the book of Acts is tough stuff for kids to get through and understand and remember!  Whew, we are learning a LOT about the start of the Christian church!

Admittedly, we did not use our time wisely over Christmas break as far as studying for Quizzing, but we have really struggled getting through Dig Sites 8-14 since the 1st Quiz over Acts in November.  Paul traveled to so many places and met so many folks who helped spread the gospel.  It is really cool stuff to learn about, but it can be quite confusing.  

We've tried to work through each section carefully over the past several weeks, and a Dig Site a day starting last week.  Still, we didn't feel prepared after this week. So we spent pretty much every waking moment from the time the kids got home from school last night until they went to bed studying hard.  Then we studied in the car all the way to Peoria this morning, and for about half an hour after we arrived.  The kids worked very hard to understand the difficult passages and questions, and we had some great discussions about what was happening in the book of Acts.

But honestly, they weren't super confident going into the quiz this time.  

Then the Quiz started and there were some very difficult questions right off the bat.  I was keeping score for another team and could see lots of kids struggling.  (Since I study with my kids, I usually know the scriptures and questions really well too, and I was thrown off by some of the questions given today.)  After the first two rounds, the kids were feeling pretty deflated about missing some questions and having troubles.  I reassured them that they were asking some really tough ones, and that they were doing just fine.  Caeden was starting to tear up, when I reminded him that his daddy said there were to be no tears if answers were missed.  He told me, "I don't know if I can handle another round!" but went back to his seat and did his best.  I noticed another boy who is always among the very top quizzers having a similar discussion/reaction with his dad and knew it wasn't just my kids having trouble.

The third round was just as difficult, and I think everyone was glad when it was finished.  There were questions about cities that Paul visited when what we studied were the names of the countries, and other questions that were vice versa.  (Guess I should have bought the map!)  There was even one question that seemed like it was from the book of Matthew, which we quizzed on last year.  It was was a super tough quiz!

After the questions were done and I finished totaling my row's scores, I joined the kids and Jeremy.  We talked about how they needed to keep their composure and be grateful even if they received a 3rd place ribbon, because they worked really hard to get through those 60 questions.

When the awards ceremony began, we were very surprised that there was only one quizzer in the Red level who had a single perfect round.  Then, in the Blue level awards, the group of 3rd place awards was big.  2nd place was big.  There were no ties in the top 10, like usual.

And, we were pleasantly surprised when 6 of the top 10 quizzers were from our PoC team--including Annah, Sylvia, and Caeden!  The girls were the only ones who had a single perfect round each, and Annah was the top quizzer for the day!

We were certainly proud of all the kids and their hard work.  It is a privilege to learn God's word, and always such a blessing.  We praise and thank Him for helping us!

Immediately after the awards the church had to empty out, as there was a funeral beginning minutes later!  We headed over to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with the Benjeys.  It was right at noon and at a mall on a Saturday--so crowded the kids sat at one table and the 4 of us adults squeezed into another all the way across the restaurant.  It was yummy though!  

"Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." - Acts 10:34-35

Happy-Down!

I was testing Caeden on his spelling words tonight, and gave him the word "happiest" in the sentence: "Who is the happiest student in your class?"  As he wrote the word, he answered, "Hmm.  Probably me."  Then, I gave him the word "happier" in the sentence: "I am happier than you."  He immediately said, "Um, I doubt that. Let's have a happy-down!"  And he proceeded to do a grinning, laughing dance that was about the happiest thing I've ever seen.  (Of course, I had to participate, and I'm pretty sure he won the happy-down, even though I was cracking up!)  I love that we have a great new term in our family, and I think we will have to have many "happy-downs" in the future!  

Fun at the dentist

I took the kids to the dentist after school today.  I've always kind of enjoyed going to the dentist, but apparently most people find it horrifying.  So, I'm very grateful our kids actually think it's FUN!

In fact, when the hygienist led us back to the sink for the kids to pick out new toothbrushes, Caeden told her he "felt weird" and his legs were all wobbly because he was excited.  We do have a great pediatric dentist's office, and they have always made it a super positive experience for the kids.

They all picked out their fun sunglasses to keep the bright light out of their eyes.

Today they all had X-rays.  They got fun toothpaste flavors--cotton candy, orange popsicle, and blue raspberry!  Sylvia's hygenist had some extra time and put sealants on her 6-year molars.  This made me realize neither Annah nor Caeden had sealants, so we will do that for them next time.  We asked Dr. Sara if Annah would need braces, and she said probably a year from now she will send her to Dr. Bowers, yes.  That was a bit unexpected, but we still had a good time at the dentist.