VBS Pictures

Kids Say...

Every once in a while I like to post something funny or interesting the kids are saying. Mostly so I don't forget it. Yesterday Ethan was talking about being afraid of something and he was concerned he would have a bad dream about it at night. I pointed out to him that dreams are not real and he tells me that whatever he worries about during the day, he has a dream about it. I talked with him about praying to God who is greater and more powerful than any dream and that He will take away Ethan's fear. Ethan says to me that the devil tries to convince him not to pray because the devil doesn't want him to talk to God. We talked about resisting the devil and asking the HS for help and that the devil is our enemy and he only wants bad for us. He pointed out the scripture that says we are to love our enemies and asked if the devil was the one enemy we didn't have to love. It was quite an interesting discussion. It always amazes me at the things he brings up when I think he hasn't learned anything during our morning devotions and out of nowhere he says something that takes me by suprise. He and George were in the car today and George was listening to a book on cd about the 12 disciples. Ethan informed George that there were 13 disciples and told George the whole story of Saul and how he became Paul. I don't want to neglect Ian so I'll say that he is saying everything or trying to. He calls his stuffed fox "focky." He loves his daddy and when George leaves the house Ian wanders around saying "where are you?, where are you?"

VBS

Last night I went out with a friend to dinner and a movie thanks to my wonderful husband who agreed to watch the boys. I had a great time and so enjoyed getting out with a grown up:) This morning when I got Ian out of his crib, he had a nasty runny nose, the kind where they can blow bubbles. So I had to call and tell the director of the VBS that I wouldn't be able to help teach on this final day of VBS:( I feel badly that I had to back out at the last minute (especially for whoever had to fill in and do my part of the skit). Ethan has loved VBS this week, especially the singing. I think the kids will be performing in church on Sunday which will be a joy to watch. It turned out to be a great week with at least half of the kids coming from outside our church. To God be the glory!

No more camera

My favorite baby gift that we received for when I had Ethan and then again when I had Ian was a video monitor. Some may mock it but I think it's the best invention since indoor plumbing:) Both my boys have had night terrors, one always gets his feet stuck in the crib rails, and sometimes even an arm gets stuck between the crib and the wall. All of these incidents were detected via my camera and so I knew I needed to go in an help. Had I not had the camera I would have probably ignored the crying. Anyway, enough of my soapbox, my sad story is that my video camera broke yesterday. We had to take it off the wall when the brick wall was installed. It was difficult to put back up because of the thickness of the wall so it's been falling off the wall quite regularly--Ian even pulled it off the wall recently. And I guess it had one too many falls because it finally broke yesterday evening. Boy what a challenge it was for me to go to sleep without having the camera there to babysit for me! It will be an adjustment for sure until I get tired of walking back and forth to their room to see what's happening.:)

VBS and Play Dates

This week is VBS at church. I'm taking turns with a friend volunteering at VBS. I'm going MWF this week to help teach the bible lessons and my friend is watching Ian for me on those days. And TTh this week I'm watching her son so she can volunteer. It's working out well. Ian doesn't usually have a play date just for him so he's enjoying having his own friend to play with. Ethan is loving VBS and looks forward to going each morning. I'm am learning that it is a good thing I didn't study education because I am not cut out to stand up and teach for extended periods:) We've had about 70 kids coming to VBS which is a lot for our little church. I did a puppet show thing on Monday and today I'm dressing up as a French Chef for a skit during the lesson. The above picture is of Ian and his friend Tanner playing dress up and the other is of Ethan and his friends at VBS.

Lonely Momma's

Last night a friend came over to revisit our lonely momma's club days. She hasn't been in the club for a while since her husband no longer works nights. But he's out of town all week so I made an exception and let her come over:) We swam with the kids, attempted to make ice cream, ate yummy food and cried while we watched John and Kate reveal that they are getting a divorce. Very depressing. I actually had a dream in the middle of the night that I had offered to do their marriage counseling for them:) My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that they should have taken a break from the show and done intensive marriage counseling. On a lighter note, I made the best grilled cheese of my career (as a novice stay at home cook) for my friend and I for dinner: havarti, tomatoes, basil and honey. It was heavenly and I'm still thinking about it!

Beach Wedding

Last night, George and I went to a wedding of some friends from church. It was the first beach wedding I've ever been to and it was very beautiful. We chose not to bring the kids so that we could enjoy it without being stressed. And we did enjoy it:)

Progress on Fire Station Room

Color Me Pretty

Florida Oceanographic

We went to the Florida Oceanographic Center on Friday to see the fish and stingrays. They have touch tanks and a sting ray feeding area and opportunities for learning about our local ecosystem.

Swimming Lessons Finished

Well Ian survived his swimming lessons and is swimming. He's not crazy about it but we've been giving him lots of praise and encouragement to keep doing it. I'm amazed at what the instructor could accomplish with him in a few days while he screamed the whole time. Ethan is doing well at the Freestyle, Breast Stroke, Butterfly and Back Stroke. The instructor wants us to put Ethan on his swim team and we're thinking about doing that. He needs to be able to swim 25m so we would have him take a week long class to learn to do that before putting him on the swim team.

Sea World

One of my most favorite theme parks is SeaWorld. I have always loved seeing all the marine animals and enjoyed watching the shows--especially Shamu. It's educational and fun at the same time. Sea World has changed so much since I was a kid, they have added their new water park Aquatica and this year they have added a new ride called Manta. This new roller coaster is the only one of its kind. You are lying face down in a sting ray shaped roller coaster that takes you underwater through a number of aquariums where you'll see thousands of fish, rays, a giant pacific octopus and other amazing creatures of the sea up close and personal. Sounds awesome right? The cool thing about Sea World is how close it is to those of us who live in Florida, for me only an hour and a half (day trip!). The other awesome thing is that Sea World is offering free admission to Busch Gardens or Aquatica with purchase of Sea World tickets. I don't know of any other theme park that offers two theme parks for the price of one! How cool is that! My kids love aquariums and all things involving fish--I know they will love Sea World. (I'm thinking they're too little for Manta though). But I know us grownups will enjoy it! Anyone for up for a road trip this summer to
SeaWorld?

God's grace is abundant

I have to say that God has been gracious to me this week. George has worked three 48hour shifts this month (he usually only does 24 at a time) meaning he's been gone 48hours straight in addition to his other job. I've had one of the worst sinus infections on record and haven't been able to to sleep but God has been merciful and we are surviving (tv and the wii help:). Seriously though, this has been an exhausting month having significant less involvement from my husband and being sick and I'm grateful that I've been able to take care of the kids in the midst of all of it. Tomorrow is their last swimming lesson and Ian has almost lost his voice from all the screaming he's been doing during his lesson. Poor Mr. Pat, so many kids hate him:( but he works miracles and since I've had to rescue Ian a few times from drowning already, I really need him to learn to swim!

Playing Dress Up

Swimming Lessons

This week the boy's have their annual swimming lessons with Mr. Pat. He comes every day for a week and teaches both boy's separately. Ethan was so excited to have Mr. Pat come, he said "can I show him my new bunkbed?" This is Ian's first swimming lesson so he didn't know what to expect. When Ethan had his lesson yesterday, Ian watched from inside and cried because he wanted to be in the pool too. But when it was his turn and he realized I wasn't going to be with him, he screamed for the entire half hour. Mr. Pat matter of factly tells me the skills he worked with him on and what he is capable of doing. This morning, when I went to put Ian's swim shorts on, he screamed and tried to take them off. He howled the entire half hour again this morning. I wonder what the neighbors think is going on? Even after all that crying, when Mr. Pat left, Ian very politely says, "Bye, Pat Pat."

Me vs. Cats

Cats always win. My entire life my immune system has battled allergies to cats and I never win. I've been getting shots now for 3yrs and apparently they are not working so well. I spent a few days at my in-laws last week (who have two cats) and had trouble with my allergies. After returning home, I felt like I was developing a sinus infection. I usually try to wait it out to see what happens but after several days of being so light headed I could hardly stand up, I went to the dr.'s today and sure enough, I have a sinus infection. The funny thing about being so light headed is that when chaos occurs with the kids, it sort of feels like an out of body experience and somehow I'm not so stressed by whatever is happening. Like this morning when I went in to get Ian. Ethan had already yelled to me that Ian didn't have his pants on and I figured they fell down around his ankles and he took them off. Well, no, he had taken off his diaper too and when I got to his crib, he was standing in a big puddle of pee, jumping up and down. And when Ethan had a double accident in his pants while we were at the doctor's today, I felt like I was watching my other self take care of it. Maybe it's not so bad being dizzy all day after all...:)

Visit to Grandma's

Well the Lord answered my prayers and the boys did very well during the trip to grandma's and back home. They had a blast visiting grandma and PopPop. Ethan helped PopPop fly his model plane on the lake. PopPop was a good sport and played teeball and even drew on the sidewalk with chalk. Ethan said "I just love visiting grandma!"

Long days

The weekend was very long for me. Ian had a stomach bug and so I stayed home with him all weekend. George was at work at the FD on Saturday so poor Ethan was stuck inside all day with nothing to do. George was able to take Ethan to church and a birthday party on Sunday though. One advantage to not going anywhere is that you can wear your pj's as long as you want which I took full advantage of:) I took them both to the dr.'s today just to make sure Ian was okay and because I thought Ethan may have had a sinus infection. He's been congested since his surgery but we think he caught a cold a week or so ago and his coughing hasn't stopped. The doctor said he looked great and had no infection. She said his tonsils were very big (the ENT pointed that out last week) and suggested that maybe his coughing is because the post nasal drip is having trouble because of the large tonsils and it causes him to cough. George fears we'll end up having his tonsils out next. I always feel silly taking the kids to the doctor and find out nothing is wrong but I'm taking the kids to visit grandma for a few days and I have no desire to end up at a walk in clinic so I took them to the doctor to make sure they were okay. So I'll be braving the hour and a half long trip tomorrow over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go...!

John Calvin Book Review

My latest book review is "John Calvin: A Heart For Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology" edited by Burk Parsons. I can imagine some of my readers are already yawning and moving on to the next post, but hear me out:) As many who know me well know, I love to read books on theology and while this book does contain theology it is so much more than that. It is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birthday and in honor of that a number of highly respected theologians, pastors, and teachers (for example: Jerry Bridges, Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur, Pillip R. Johnson, Philip Graham Ryken, etc.) have written chapters in this book about John Calvin's life, his passion for the word, and his love for the church. I have read some of John Calvin here and there and of course have been taught from his teachings since before I can remember, but I knew little about the man himself. This book has opened up the door for me to learning about how he came to the Lord, about his life as a pastor and teacher, about his work in missions, the persecution he endured, his faith, his trails, his compassion for the hurting as well as his teachings and theology. This book shows the amazing work God did through John Calvin during a very challenging time in church history. The number of sermons he preached each week, the number of books and commentaries he wrote and the number of pastors and missionaries he trained would astound any reader. I encourage anyone who has resisted reading any of his works for fear of it's difficulty to read this book as it will give you a hunger to read Calvin's works directly. And I challenge anyone who has only heard negatively of Calvin to read this for your eyes will be opened to see a man full of passion for Christ and for the lost that you too will desire to read more. As for me, I will be putting the Insitutes on my Christmas wish list this year:)

Answered Prayer

What is it called when God answers a prayer you haven't even prayed? I've had that happen to me twice recently and I'm convicted that I need to be praying about everything, no just for other's salvation or healing, etc. For example, I sold my treadmill a month or so ago and had planned on looking for an exercise bike. Well before the people who bought the treadmill even had come to pick it up, I got a call from a friend who told me that her mother wanted to give me her exercise bike--no charge! And so today, I was feeling bummed and stressed about figuring out how to see my doctor and wrote the post following this one. Not an hour later, I see a friend who says, can my husband and I watch your kids for you so you can see the doctor? I'm getting tears in my eyes as I type this. Amazing how God provides what we need before we even get a chance to ask! Praise God!

Things Taken For Granted

There are many things that we take for granted in our lives and I think many of those come to light when we have children. I think most mom's would agree that prior to kids we had taken it for granted being able to run into the grocery store for a gallon of milk and knew that it would take 2 minutes. With kids, it takes 10 minutes. We used to go to the movies every weekend before having Ethan, now we go once every few months. I took for granted the ease with which I could go to the doctor's or get my hair cut or go to the gym. Prior to having children, I had not thought of what it would mean that we didn't have any family living near us. I had thought about the fact that the kids would not know their grandparents or aunt's or other relatives that well. But I had not realized that not having family locally would mean that I would have to rely on paid babysitter's or my husband for when I needed to go to the doctor or get a hair cut. Over the past few months I have had to reschedule my dentist appointment 4 times because I could not get a sitter (the one who said they would watch them whose name starts with G kept backing out:) By the third time I was so embarassed to have to call and reschedule that I called when I knew the office was closed and left a message:) My gyn. wants to do some testing and an ultrasound and may ultimately want to do a uterine procedure. I had scheduled the tests and also threw in a haircut all on the same day but now have to call and cancel due to lack of a sitter (and these are most definitely appointments I will not drag the kids to). This is what prompted my thoughts on what I had taken for granted in the past. And so the moral of the story is...for those who do have family who live locally and who help out regularly--don't take it for granted!:) And hopefully my dentist (who attends my church by the way) will forgive me one day:)

New Blog

My small group decided to start a blog to write about the books we read together. Fun!!! Since I love blogging, it's even better to have two blogs to write on. So I hope you'll stop by and visit and see what we are reading at www.dogearedmommies.blogspot.com.

6am club

I've posted about the 5am club in the past but lately Ian has been sleeping past 5am, yay! This morning he was up around 6 and actually so was Ethan (though Ethan went straight to our bed and fell back to sleep). So I wasn't able to read my bible before they woke up as I had been trying to do but since it was early, it wasn't too hot outside so I let Ian play on the porch and I sat out there and read the word. It was actually a really good time, the birds were waking up and the fountains on the pool were on making a great background noise. It was a beautiful morning, a blessing from the Lord:)

Sharing a Room

Well the boys have been sharing a room officially for a few days now and it has been going well. Ian goes to bed first and after he falls asleep we send Ethan in. While we are waiting for Ian to fall asleep we all read "The Magician's Nephew" together. Now that the bunkbeds are up we have realized that the fireman pole may not become a reality because of the trundle and drawers under the bed need space to pull out and the end of the bed has a dresser. Perhaps when Ian is done with his crib we can move the dresser to where the crib is and then have room for it. I think Ethan will be disappointed when we tell him because he was so looking forward to getting out of his bunk by sliding down the pole:(

Ephesians

I've posted before about our couple's small group that we are involved with. We have been studying Ephesians. At our last meeting we were studying chapter 5. It always amazes me about the bible that you can read the same passage a hundred times and every time the Spirit teaches you more. The verse that stuck out to me was "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret." vs. 11 and 12. Paul is showing the difference in a Christians behavior from before they were saved to now that they are saved. And so the thought that kept coming to my mind were some tv shows that we watch that show the shameful things that people do in secret (including a few comedies that air Monday nights on CBS--I know, I know, don't judge me please:):) So I shared these thoughts with my husband and he agreed so we are working on changing some of our viewing habits. Previous to reading this passage I had already had to stop watching some of my favorite investigation shows because I felt they were glorifying violence as the murders they were investigating just seemed to become more and more violent. Last night we decided to listen to "The Imitation of Christ" on George's ipod which was a neat way to end the day. And at least there's always cooking shows and home shows:)