"How to Raise Your Older Brothers," by Grace

Grace: Daddy, who wuz it dat got in da mud agin?

Daddy [not too pleased with this person at the moment]: Guess.

Grace [matter-of-factly]: It wuz Josiah. I tink you need to 'pank Josiah wid...dis. [picks up a belt that she had been playing with] If you 'pank him like dis [she demonstrates on the floor], he will be sad and he won't get in da mud anymore.

Faith to be strong

Tuesday night was the final session for our Beth Moore Bible study, Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent. I have had a particular Andrew Peterson song in my head since I heard it before going to the Bible study this week. It turns out that this song fits quite nicely with the last video session, where Beth talks about how God will give us the strength to take the next step...daily grace. Praise God!

~~~~~

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2: 6-9

~~~~~

Faith To Be Strong

Give us faith to be strong
Father, we are so weak
Our bodies are fragile and weary
As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead
Give us faith to be strong

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us peace when we're torn
Mend us up when we break
This flesh can be wounded and shaking
When there's much too much trouble for one heart to take
Give us peace when we're torn

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us hearts to find hope
Father, we cannot see
How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom
And as hard as we try, Lord, it's hard to believe
So, give us hearts to find hope

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong
Give us peace when we're torn
Give us faith, faith to be strong

--By Andrew Peterson, from the album Carried Along (2000)

You can click here to listen to the song for free.

Wordless Wednesday

If you look carefully, you can see a sliver of the moon in the left third of the photo. Around here, that's known as "Grace's moonie"...that's what she calls the moon every time she sees it. :)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Overheard

Grace [after doing something I had JUST asked her not to do]: Itsa good ting I so cute!

Translation: "It's a good thing I'm so cute." Ummm, yeah. She may have heard that a time or two.

Me: I think she's trying to get on the blog!

Robert: In your world, everyone's trying to get on the blog. That's just usually not the case.

~~~~~

Josiah: “Is the price high?” Hey, yesterday I was on Lesson 99, and today I am on Lesson 100! “Yes, the price is very high.” Why did they say that?

Me: Those two sentences went together--“Is the price high?” and then the answer, “Yes, the price is very high.”

Josiah: Ohhhh. It’s probably about a car. “The fire is bright.” Hey, Grace! I can read “fire”!

Josiah is doing very well with phonics, despite appearances with this entirely typical lesson. I am constantly amazed, although, really, I shouldn't be. He is a very bright child--if you tell him any story, he will remember not only the story, but also details...many, many details. And it's pretty cool to watch him while he is doing a phonics lesson. He will look up, mouth the word(s), and stare off for a second or two as he hangs this new piece of information on a mental "hook."

And then he may or may not start talking about something that seems entirely unrelated...

~~~~~

Kathleen [in an email I received this afternoon]: We walked where Jesus walked -- sometimes a fast walk!! And we got really sprayed on our boat ride today!!

Now how many people can say that?!? Among many other things, Dad and Kathleen took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee today.

~~~~~

Robert [teasing]: It's a good thing you're so cute!

Grace: No, it's not!

Robert insisted that I add "teasing" to that remark.

~~~~~

Josiah: Knock knock.

Me: Who's there?

Josiah: Haven't you.

Me: Haven't you who?

Robert: Haven't you heard enough knock knock jokes?

Josiah: Yeah.

A hijacked knock knock joke. That's what big brothers are for...

~~~~~

Robert [listening to his MP3 player]: Oh, I missed my favorite part...

Me: What's your favorite part?

Robert: "If it's getting cold, reheat it."

The song? "Eat It." Who else besides me thinks it's odd to have your children listening to Weird Al after all of these years?

~~~~~

Robert [stalling at bedtime]: Hey, Grace! I have something to tell you! [She stops; he whispers in her ear] Eat it!

Grace [perplexed and holding a toy dog]: Eat the dog?

~~~~~

Y'all, I think this one's my favorite...

Josiah [Dropping a handful of rags into the overflowing rag basket in the laundry room]: Could you puh-leese wash some laundry today?

This coming from the child who had just finished scrubbing mud he had tracked in--again--off the kitchen floor...the same child who changes clothes multiple times each day because of the multiple times he gets filthy outside...

It's a good thing he's so cute! ;)

Wordless Wednesday: My Baby Girl

OK, I have to share not one, but two photos today. These were taken in 2006 when little Grace was really little and a mere 3 months old. Doesn't she look like a little doll?





And this was taken a few moments later, when she was laughing her head off at one of her brothers.

Grace (age 2) will look at photos of herself as a baby, and I ask her, "Who is that?" She always answers, "Dat me!" Then she pauses for a moment and asks, "And what was my name den?"
Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

And to think I almost missed him...

I have been in a complete fog for the last couple of weeks, partly due to this. Well...today, I thought, "I'll call my Dad before he and Kathleen (a.k.a, Grammy K and Mary Ingalls) leave for their big trip to Israel and Egypt!"

Now, that's a big trip.

So, after getting Jason and the kids out the door for Josiah's basketball practice tonight, I finally dialed the numbers and reached Dad on his cell phone.

They were on the bus on the way to the airport with the group they would be touring with. On the bus.

I had printed out the itinerary that Kathleen had sent, had it sitting on my kitchen counter...and it wasn't even buried by a stack of papers. Me, with all of my fogginess, had the wrong departure date in mind, and I came thisclose to missing talking with my Dad before this big trip.

During the conversation, he mentioned how he was saying goodbye to his buddies at the "Y" and saying how he would miss them. One of them offered, "And I'll bet you'll miss the water, too," referring to swimming. My Dad replied, "Oh, I hope I miss the water! That's a lot of water we'll be over for a long time."

When they come to mind, please pray for my Dad and Kathleen. I can't wait to hear all about this fantastic trip, but I will also feel better when they are safely back home again! :) Thank you!

Skateboard, Dude!

Here is our resident skateboard dude rotating around in a circle...with the skateboard upside down. This is called a Casper (I know because I asked him).

And now I understand why the skateboard is chipped at both the "nose" and the "tail." (See? I do know some skateboarding terms without having to ask Robert about it. I still feel like I have to put 'em in quotes, but I know them.)

Preparation...

Lift-off...



"Did you get the picture?"

I think Robert actually said that the caption for this should be, "I didn't do it the right way." But I was impressed. He was off the ground, after all.

Oh, and that was an Ollie. I know because I asked him. ;)

Overheard

Josiah: By the time you are 13, Robert and I will be gone. We'll be in our own house.

Grace [shocked and dismayed at this thought]: And I will be so sad!

Josiah: Why will you be sad?

Grace: Because I don't want you and Robert to be gone!

Josiah assure her that she could come and visit them.

Grace: But who will drive me?!?

And, yes, he's a little off on his math. But (gulp!) not by much...

~~~~~

Robert: The Lake of Death actually froze all the way down! The poor sock puppets are probably like this... [he demonstrates with a grotesque pose]

~~~~~

Grace [yelling out the back door]: Josiah!! Get outta da water!!


The Little Momma...And, to be correct, Josiah wasn't playing in water. It was actually ice, seeing as it was 30 degrees when he was out there.

~~~~~

Josiah [suddenly appearing in the doorway]: Hey, Mom! I'm gonna ride my bike around the neighborhood!

Me: No, you're not.

I can't trust him in the front yard by himself...

Grace [suddenly appearing in the doorway]: Hey, Mom! I'm gonna ride...around the couch! And around the table!

Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete jumps out. Who is still in the boat?

~~~~~

Me: Thank you, sweetheart!

Josiah disappears from the room. Grace eyes me, the empty doorway, and me again suspiciously.

Grace: Who did you call "sweetheart"?

Me: Josiah.

Grace [upset]: But I your sweetheart! Not Josiah!

~~~~~

Last but not least, the following is "overheard" from other blogs.

Sophie, a.k.a. BooMama, and Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer have touching posts about the Compassion trip they went on one year ago. Please read them (here and here). And if you sponsor a Compassion child, please write to them...often. You are making a difference! (Go ahead and read that, too, while you're at it.)

~~~~~

And I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Wordless Wednesday: Neighborhood Watch

This was taken in May 2004, when Robert was 7 and Josiah was nearly 2. If you look closely, you can see the black "Robin" mask on Robert's forehead. The boys--especially Robert--wore their baby blankets as superhero capes for years. Superhero capes were such a staple in our household that while I was pregnant with Grace, Josiah would tell me the baby had on a red superhero cape. (Knowing Grace, it would have been pink!)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Tears are valuable

Scripture never condemns grief. Tears are valuable. They are God-given relief mechanisms.

There are some who chide tears as unmanly, unsubmissive, unchristian. They would comfort us with a chill and pious stocism, bidding us meet the most agitating passages of our history with rigid and tearless countenance. With such the spirit of the Gospel, and of the Bible, has little sympathy. We have no sympathy with a morbid sentimentality; but we may well question whether the man who cannot weep can really love, for sorrow is love, widowed and bereaved--and where that is present, its most natural expression is in tears. Religion does not come to make us unnatural and inhuman; but to purify and ennoble all those natural emotions with which our manifold nature is endowed. Jesus wept. Peter wept. The Ephesian converts wept on the neck of the Apostle whose face they were never to see again. Christ stands by each mourner, saying, "Weep, my child; weep, for I have wept."

Tears relieve the burning brain, as a shower the electric clouds. Tears discharge the unsupportable agony of the heart, as an overflow lessens the pressure of the flood against the dam. Tears are the material out of which heaven weaves its brightest rainbow.

F. B. Meyer, Abraham

"Be still, and know that I am God"

Early February is just hard for me. It holds the anniversaries of the deaths of two very important people in my life. With this in mind, I put the following quotes together for me as much as for you. I already had the general post in mind, but I pulled a lot of this from our pastor's sermon yesterday.

~~~~~

When you lay me down to die, I'll miss my boys. I'll miss my girls.
Lay me down and let me say goodbye to this world.
You can lay me anywhere, oh, but just remember this:
When you lay me down to die, you lay me down to live.

...When you lay me down to die, I'll open up my eyes
In the skies I've never known, in the place where I belong.
And I'll realize that His love is just another word for home.

I believe in the holy shores of uncreated light.
I believe there is power in the blood.
And all of the death that ever was,
If you set it next to life,
I believe it would barely fill a cup
‘Cause I believe there’s power in the blood.

Andrew Peterson, Lay Me Down
From the album The Far Country. Full lyrics are here.

You can listen to this song, and other Andrew Peterson songs, here. Also, he's on YouTube.

~~~~~

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

John 14:2 (NIV)


~~~~~

Soon you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don't believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before.

Dwight L. Moody

~~~~~

What is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

2 Corinthians 5:4b (NASB)

~~~~~

You haven't lost anything when you know were it is. Death can hide but not divide.

Vance Havner

~~~~~

God is too good to be unkind. He is too wise to be confused. If I cannot trace His hand, I can always trust His heart.

Charles Spurgeon

~~~~~

Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10a (NIV)

The Mommy Survey

My sister-in-law tagged me with this on Facebook a few days ago.

I have a confession to make. I don't "do" Facebook too well. I can blame it on my computer--it takes "fah-evah," as Grace would say, for everything to load when I click on any little thing, and I get frustrated with it. Grrrr...dial-up. (We also don't have cable, satellite, Caller ID, or even Call Waiting. Weird, I know.) However, the truth is that I'm just more at home here on my blog. :) But I liked this Mommy Survey, so I thought I'd respond here if not on Facebook.

If you are interested, please play along on your blog! You can copy and paste the link to your post in a comment if you'd like.

~~~~~

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born!

Just copy and paste it in a new note for yourself!
Let's see how much you remember!


1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
No, not exactly. :) But it was God's timing.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
Yes. We had celebrated our first anniversary shortly before we found out I was pregnant.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
We were very happy, excited, surprised...

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
No

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
26

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
I knew I was exhausted all the time, but we were also in the process of moving to another state (from Georgia to North Carolina). After we got a little more settled, I took a pregnancy test early one morning before getting ready for work. I woke up Jason, who sat there and blinked when I told him the news. :)

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
My husband

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE S*EX?
Yes!

9. DUE DATE?
May 15, 1997

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
Yes, and it lasted all day until I was 5 1/2 months along.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Ice cream and Arby's roast beef sandwiches. My co-worker at an after-school care program would occasionally stop by Arby's and get me a sandwich just because she cared. How sweet is that? Oh, and I certainly craved SLEEP, at least until the so-called "morning" sickness passed.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
The sights and smells of grocery stores as well as cooking...ugh. I don't know how we survived without starving. :) There are only so many times you can eat Hardee's in a week, and that was the ONLY nearby fast food place/cheap eating out option that we had in our area.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S S*EX?
Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE S*EX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
No, but I remember being genuinely surprised to find I was carrying a boy!

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
30 pounds.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
Yes

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
I knew. It was at one of my jobs (after-school care) and the kiddos were too excited to keep it a secret. The parents brought the gifts as they came to pick up their children.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
Only that my baby was breech and could not be turned, which was thoroughly disappointing at the time after the multiple attempts by the doctor to turn him (ouch). The anesthesiologist had a very difficult time getting the epidural in place correctly, and on his last try (ouch) he was successful. If he had not been, I would not have been awake for the delivery.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Community Memorial Hospital; South Hill, Virginia (and, yes, I had to look that up!)

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
My water broke first at 7 a.m.--this was a planned c-section since we knew he was breech, so we headed to the hospital.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?
My husband Jason. It was 30-35 miles away.

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Jason, the doctor, nurses, and anesthesiologist

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
Planned C-section

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
Yes. Was glad it stopped the back labor!

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
6 lbs., 13 oz.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
May 5th at 12:10 p.m.

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
Robert

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?
11

Wordless Wednesday: You break 'em, you buy 'em!

A "For Sale" sign over the Ten Commandments.

And it's "For Sale by Owner"....hmmmm...

Thank you, Jason, for the title! :)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Overheard

Robert: What's "oregano"?

Me: It's a spice. We use it in spaghetti sauce, pizza, things like that.

Robert: Oh. Sounds like the name of a cat.

There you go, if you're needing to name a cat anytime soon...

~~~~~

Andrew [a three year old friend]: Where's Mr. (insert our last name here)?

Grace: My daddy's name is DAY-SON.

Well, that clears things up. She's big on enunciation; not quite there on pronunciation, though.

~~~~~

Me [to Jason]: What I'd like to know is what exactly could you be dreaming about to wake up with the song "American Pie" in your head?

Because I really can't remember my dream, and I bet it's been 10-15 years since I last heard the song. I almost always wake up with a song playing in my head, even in the middle of the night. The only time this is bad is when I don't know the lyrics.

~~~~~

Grace: I'm too full. I can't finish my burger.

Me: Then you won't get any of the fries I saved for you.

Grace: Do you know what "full" means? It means I'm gonna eat the rest of my burger!


And she did.

~~~~~

Emily [whispering into Jason's ear]: Grace needs some ice cream.

Jason: Grace needs water to go to sleep?

Grace [flustered]: No!!!

Emily [whispering into Jason's ear]: Grace needs some ice cream.

In case you have forgotten or didn't know, this is Emily...getting her diaper changed by Grace. Emily's clothes are sewn on at the neck because I don't have the patience Grace would take them off 5 or 50 times a day.

And, no, Grace didn't get any ice cream, despite her baby's attempts on her behalf.

~~~~~

Robert: I can't wait to see this! The Lake of Death froze!

Seconds before on this cold morning, Josiah had run into the house with the news that the "Lake of Death" (a.k.a., his sand box filled with water) had frozen over. This is where they drown the poor sock puppets before burying them.

~~~~~

Grace was running back and forth in the kitchen while we had this rather one-sided conversation:

Grace: You "Ma."

Grace: Daddy's "Pa."

Grace: I "Laura." [pronounced "LAW-ra"]

Grace: Ya know who's my sista Mary? [pronounced "MAY-ree"]

Me: No, I don't. Who's your sister Mary? [I know better than to remind her that she has two brothers...]

Grace: Miss Kathleen! [pronounced "Kaff-a-leen"...a.k.a. Grammy K]

...Because Grace doesn't merely have books read to her; rather, she absorbs them. Her most recent obsession has been a Little House in the Big Woods storybook where Laura got her rag doll Charlotte for Christmas. She has been officially introduced to Laura Ingalls Wilder and she's not even three years old yet! Oh, and if you read a book to her, you must read all of the pages...including the dedications. She will fuss at you if you try to skip it--just ask Robert!

~~~~~

Me: Where are the cookies? Because if I am going to feel this bad, I'm at least going to have chocolatey breath.

Jason: Now, I think that is blog-worthy!

I was sick with a cold but am feeling much better now--thanks for asking.