Sisters...Sisters...

My sister Jen has made it quite clear that she thinks Facebook is dumb and will not join. She's a nonconformist, that one. Or maybe anti-social? ;-)

Anyway, I sent her the perfect e-card for her birthday:



She had already seen the card, though, and emailed me, "I knew you would send me that card."

Gotta love sisters!

Busy Boy

Click on collage to view larger.

A Life Declaring God's Faithfulness

I have been spending hours lately putting together a DVD montage of 90 years worth of pictures from my Grandmother's life in celebration of her birthday this month. In viewing her pictures again and again, my heart is filled with gratitude and praise to God for His faithfulness to her and to her family. He is good!

My grandmother Nadzieja was born in 1918 in Moscow, Russia just months after the murder of Czar Nicholas II and his family. Nadia's father died when she was a little child, and her mother fled communist Russia to Poland with her children. To save her girls from starvation, she placed them in a Christian orphanage where they lived for the next twelve years. God blessed Grandma with the opportunity to travel to America in a choir, provided her with a college education while she lived with her generous "American parents", and gave her a loving husband and five children.

My Grandma tells part of her story much more eloquently in a series of letters that she wrote to her grandchildren which I have posted on my previous blog.

Go ahead and press play and watch a little! :) At the beginning of the montage, I refer to Grandma as Jadwiga, because she was given this Polish name in the orphanage to distinguish her from other girls also named Nadia. Later I refer to her as Nadzieja, her Russian name, which she started using again later in life.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Evening Exercise

When the kids and I took a walk around the pond during the day this week, we were surprised by a little freak of nature. We heard a rattling in the reeds and the trees beside the pond as dried twigs and grasses flew wildly in the air. The wind skated across the pond, churning the water in a circle, and skirted off across the path in front of us. The children asked me breathlessly, "What was that?!" and were delighted when I told them that it was a whirlwind.

On Friday evening when James got home from work, we immediately set out on another walk around the pond...

This IS Spring in Colorado

I've noticed several bloggers posting pictures of lovely flowers, budding branches, and other signs of spring in their area. Yesterday morning, I heard birds twittering in the trees and I looked outside to see the sun shining in the clear blue sky. The children dressed themselves in short sleeves and even shorts, and I thought to myself that we ought to take a walk to the pond after lunch. James and the kids had seen pelicans floating on the water when they drove by last weekend.

We should have gone out for our walk in the morning! The sky quickly turned gray as clouds rolled in. After lunch, the weather turned cold and damp and soon it began to snow. We could have bundled up for a brisk walk, but we gravitated towards a warm fire to read books instead.

I took these pictures of a poor little bloke out the back window:

Snow is a sign of spring in Colorado. It often snows more in the spring than in the winter. At least the sun will return soon to melt it all away.

Thoughts from my Sleep-Deprived Mind

Have you ever wondered what would be the least amount of sleep the human body could get and yet survive?

I seem to be an unwilling participant in some experiment to find out the answer to that question.

Don't count on me to keep track of the results. Sleep deprivation definitely cuts down on brain function.

Yesterday, my family ate lunch at my Uncle Rich and Aunt Beth's house. Aunt Beth, Julie and I realized that it has been a very long time since we've taken any pictures of Elijah and Logan together. We decided to rectify our lapse in photography. Since both Julie and I left our camera at home, we borrowed Aunt Beth's digital camera.

Toddlers don't hold still for a camera.

We had to use a flash due to low interior light which meant a delay before the picture snapped. I took many pictures of the backs of toddler heads. The boys rarely were in the same frame at the same time. I tried to get them to both climb the stairs at the same time to channel their energy. Logan climbed the stairs about five times with Evan starting him over again at the bottom, because Elijah decided he wanted "apple" instead of stairs. I did get one decent shot of the two looking up at me when they "played the piano" for about 10 seconds.

You might see the picture when Aunt Beth uploads the picture to her computer and sends it to me. *Snicker*

These days, Logan has cars and trucks on his mind. He runs to the window when he hears a motor outside and sometimes hits the jackpot with a garbage truck or a mail truck doing the rounds on our circle. Fortunately for him, since our mailmen are very lazy committed to speedy delivery, they drive the truck to every box.

Logan has inherited his older brothers' Duplo cars and trucks with "guys" to drive them. He has also acquired any remote-control cars that no longer work and various assorted matchbox vehicles. I realize that the latter are not usually toddler toys, but Logan is not in the habit of putting toys in his mouth. He contentedly makes the rounds of the house, pushing his vehicles around on various pieces of furniture. Here he is lying on the floor (yes, with two pacis), pushing Evan's Lego truck back and forth in front of his face:



Remembering how Evan learned to say color names from pointing to Christmas lights before he was two, I have been pointing out colors when talking about objects with Logan. He startled me recently by pointing to our vacuum and saying, "Red", then pointing to my shirt and saying, "Red." (It was bright pink.)

Since we homeschool, maybe I should mention some highlights from last week. Since we came to the ancient Assyrians in our history reading, I also read in 2 Kings 18 and 19 about how the Lord stuck down 185,000 in the Assyrian army and delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib's hand. "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it...For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." (19: 32-34)

We started memorizing the poem The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron. The poem contains some wonderfully picturesque similes comparing the Assyrian soldiers to leaves in different seasons.

It was as if the Lord blessed us with a sermon illustration in advance, as the sermon yesterday was on symbolic victories of the Old Testament where the Lord delivered His people by His own power and for His own glory, leading up to Christ's ultimate victory. I want to listen to the sermon again when it is posted on our church's website and want to link it here.

I would post more, but I'm too tired! :)

Marvelous Milestones

Please indulge me while I muse over Logan's latest milestones. I'm his mom and this is my blog.

What baby book?!

Logan is 17 months now and a delight to our whole family. He is saying many understandable words, not strung together, but plenty of them. He calls James "Daddy" and calls me "Mom." Just this past week he started saying "Matthew" quite clearly. Today he examined the, um, shiny things on my shirt design --I have no idea what exactly they are-- and said " 'parkle." He likes to poke people in the face, saying "no'e" and "eye." Today he said "water." When he wants something, he knows now to say "P'ease." For awhile "no" meant yes and no, but he switched to saying " 'kay" for yes.

He certainly warmed my heart this week when he began giving us kisses. Real kisses, not just slobbers!

He climbs up on chairs, benches, couches, testing me to see if I'll let him stand on the furniture, then sitting tall as if he's thinking, "I'm such a big boy!"

The piano teacher even noticed Logan's singing recently, remarking that he bobs in time to the piano music, but also sometimes softly cooing along with his baby voice.

A week ago, James took the day off to run the gauntlet get family portraits (yeah, yeah ~ the first time since Sophie was 6 months old) and to take the family to the zoo. We arrived at the zoo in late afternoon and had the place mostly to ourselves, speaking of humans, of course. Logan rode in the Ergo on my back and stared open-eyed at animals that he had only been introduced to in books. In the feline house, a tiger paced back and forth next to the glass. I matched the big cat's pacing in front of the cage with Logan growling on my back. I like to watch the baby watching the animals! We spent the most time with the giraffes, observing the feeding time and laughing at the baby giraffes cavorting about the the cage. Finally, when evening deepened into night, we strolled through the zoo admiring the thousands of twinkling Christmas lights decorating the park. Frosty, but fun.

Our Car Is Sick Too

James drove to work on Friday, but decided to come home when the stomach bug hit him. On the way home, the Mazda died. He called to tell me that he was going to catch a bus home, barf bag in hand. I wanted to pick him up, but not with pukey kids in tow. I called his mom who graciously rescued him. He got the car towed to our mechanic.

Though it wasn't fun for James to deal with car problems when sick, it was probably a good thing that the car trouble occurred during the middle of the day rather than during rush hour traffic.

The shop called to give us the cost of repairs, which would exceed the worth of the car.

We've been thinking about what vehicle to purchase in replacement of the Mazda (which served us well for many years and was used in the first place). We are leaning towards buying a used 12-passenger van for hospitality purposes. We have often thought it would be nice to convey people other than just our immediate family. I would drive the big van, especially since I drive infrequently, and the mini-van would become James' commuter vehicle. We have been thinking this way for a while, and now the death of the Mazda will force us to act. (If you think our idea is foolhardy, feel free to try to talk us out of it in the comment section. ;-)

Matthew is convinced that this is the vehicle for us (click on the link, Loey). While the sign warning cars to stay back 500 feet, the intimidating presence, and the lights and sirens to clear our path are appealing (Logan: "Konk, konk, woooooo"), we might have too much trouble fitting it into our garage. Too bad, Matthew.

Twizzlers and Twinkle, Twinkle

Interesting Illustration of the Day:

In the course of some discussion with the kids today, I pointed out that sin can be very pleasurable for a period of time, but that the end result is always destructive. Evan interjected, "It is like eating an apple-flavored Twizzler. At first it tastes good, but pretty soon the taste turns nasty in your mouth."

What Will Our Relatives Do Next?

Apparently my nephew Conner will play his violin in public...for the right price! Recently he informed his parents that he wanted to dress in western wear and perform at an outdoor mall. Here is a picture that his dad emailed us:

Conner earned $11!

Slice of Life

We spent a quiet evening at home last night in spite of the ringing doorbell and chorus of trick-or-treaters. We ate supper by candlelight. James let the kids carve two of the pumpkins that Matthew grew. Logan sat drowsily on my lap in the family room, holding my fingers while he looked around at the flickering candles and listened to me quietly sing Psalms.

The Toddler Pumpkin

Family Discipleship

We have recently started two new habits in what I'll call "family discipleship" that God is using to bless each of us. For the past several months, we have been having a sermon discussion on Sunday afternoon. We encourage the kids to take some notes during the Sunday morning sermon, and James and I do as well, though it usually is a joint effort between us. If Logan is with James, I'm writing, but if Logan comes to me, the notes get passed down to James.

At some point in the afternoon, we gather the family together and go through our notes, asking the children questions in order to discuss the main ideas. We have found the practice to be a great platform for discussing key spiritual truths, bringing up examples of our own, or tying in other scripture that goes along with the sermon. It is encouraging to hear what the children remember from listening and to go over what was missed.

An exciting benefit we have discovered from starting this habit is that we are all retaining in the long run more of past sermons, and when we discuss the sermon of the week, we often tie in examples, illustrations, or truths from past sermons.

James and I are encouraged by the soft hearts we see in our children at this point in their lives. We haven't run across sighing, groaning, eye-rolling or other "How boring" type of behaviors. The children participate in and seem to enjoy our sermon discussions. It has even been a time when I get to "cuddle" one of the older kids on my lap which doesn't happen as often the older they get!

Sunday afternoons are often opportunities for a family bike ride or walk as well (though I often stay at home while Logan naps, because I feel all worn out on Sunday afternoon), but I like that we have added in this spiritual "discipline" to our routine which draws us closer together as a family and closer to our Savior.

The second discipleship habit that we have added is in our nightly family worship routine. We have begun using the guide Balancing the Sword to aid us in our Bible reading. Right now, we are reading through Exodus (Again-- in case anyone remembers that I read in Exodus with the kids at the beginning of last school year.) The guide includes 3-4 content related questions which James reads to us before the Bible reading and then asks the children to answer after we read the scripture aloud. We also pick one of the questions to read all of the related cross-references which often is a wonderful opportunity for tying the Old and New Testaments together.

When we read the chapter about Moses and the burning bush, we talked about how God wants and requires the worship of His people. The guide asked the question, "What did Pharaoh say was the root problem that caused Israel to ask to leave and make sacrifices to YHWH?" The kids remembered that Pharaoh accused the Israelites of wanting to worship God out of idleness, and we talked about how Pharaoh considered working for him more important that worshiping God. The cross-reference for the question included Matthew 26:8,9 ~ the story of the woman who poured out expensive perfume on Jesus, getting scolded by those present for wastefulness, while receiving commendation from Jesus Himself for her act of devotion. While the children did not grasp the connection between these scriptures on their own, the light dawned on James and me as we pointed out the similarities between the two stories. Just as Pharaoh discounted the Israelites desire to worship God, considering hard work more important, the disciples frowned on the woman's simple, yet extravagant act of worshiping Jesus, telling her that it would have been better for her to use the money from the perfume for the poor. We came away from our Bible reading with a renewed sense that our highest calling as God's people is to worship God. (And what an encouragement to continue faithfully in family worship.)

Guess what the sermon the following Sunday was about... Matthew 26: 6-13! Praise God for His grace to us! We thank Him for this demonstration of His love and encouragement to us through His Word and the timeliness of the sermon for our family! The pastor brought out the phrase "She has done what she could" from the parallel passage, Mark 14:8 and discussed how, though she was nothing in the eyes of the world, God made note of her, because of her worshipful, self-sacrificing act, done solely out of love for the Lord Jesus. The sermon drove the meaning of the passage deeper into our hearts.

For my family and any other readers of this blog, if you would like to pray for our family, please ask the Lord to continue to lead us into greater faithfulness in our worship and service to Him, that we would do what we can, simple though it may be, but out of love for Christ and with our eyes fixed on His glory.

Thanks for letting me share our joy in the Lord!