Gym

I took Ian to the gym today. Well I went to the gym and he went to the babysitting place. He was excited for me to leave and when I came back to get him he said, "Mom, I had fun!" I had a gym membership for years and then when Ethan was born I stopped going. Between all the naps kids take and all the activities we were involved with, it just wasn't going to happen. I had a treadmill for a while and now I have a stationary bike that I ride on most mornings but I've been feeling like I need to get back into doing weights so I mentioned to George that I might like to rejoin the gym. When I found out how much they charged per month, I changed my mind. But, as it turns out, George made arrangements with the gym to have a special deal for everyone at his work, including their families. Yay! We'll see how sore I am tomorrow:)

Thanksgiving Week

The boys did stomp rockets and rocket balloons with Uncle Will and PopPop.

My tables debut at it's first Thanksgiving

Gobble Gobble

Ian and Aunt Shanna

Silly Mommy, this isn't snow!

City Place

Bubbles at City Place

Thanksgiving

What a crazy week it's been! I felt like it was a mad rush to return from WOF and get ready to host Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Ian has an ear infection and Ethan and I are trying to deal with our sinuses. On Tuesday night we had an appointment at the allergist down south so we decided to just stay out, go to dinner and see the snow-er bubbles at CityPlace. We were at the doctor's for an hour and a half, thankfully I hadn't pulled all my hair out by the time we left:) We enjoyed a yummy dinner outside at Il Bellagio and watched the bubbles AKA snow come down. The kids loved running around in it. For Thanksgiving we had my in-laws and a family from church over. George fried a couple of turkeys and everyone pitched in for the sides. It was a pretty laid back day (that's the benefit of frying turkey) and we got to watch the Macy's parade and kick back. Unfortunately, the garbage disposal decided to break while I was cleaning up the dishes from Thanksgiving dinner--Ahhhh! George decided to get up early and do the Black Friday thing. He missed some of the deals he wanted but most imporantly, he returned with a new disposal. Friday was spent putting it together and required two more trips to Home Depot. The added benefit was that since he was under the sink anyway, he decided he would finally replace my broken instahot. Yay! I can now use my instahot for my French Press every morning instead of heating up a teapot. It's like an early Christmas for me:) Since our Christmas party is next weekend (what were we thinking!), we had to quickly go from Thanksgiving mode to Christmas mode. We got our Christmas tree (and yes George and I had our annual arguement about whether it was too big or not) and started decorating. We took a break last night to hang out with some friends at their house for dinner but when we returned I was back to getting ready for our party. It'll be nonstop this week but it doesn't look like we'll have all the 100 people that we invited come to it. Did I mention that we are leaving for 10 days in mid December? We are indeed crazy!!

WOF

This weekend I went with my mommy group and a few other friends to Women of Faith. I was a little sad that I would be missing Ian's first school play on Friday but as it turns out, he came down with a fever the night before I left so he missed his first play. The morning I left for WOF, Ian's fever was almost 103 and it was hard for me to leave him sick but he was in good hands with his daddy. The thing that drew me to going to WOF was that Steven Curtis Chapman would be performing. He is one of my top favorite artists and it has been a long time since I've seen him in concert (probably 1990 and he had a mullet:) I absolutely loved his performance and of course cried as he shared what he and his family have been through. I enjoyed the other speakers and performers as well. There is something reassuring for me to see other people in my profession struggling through issues of their own. I often feel like a therapist is supposed to have it all together; I feel like the cardiologist who weighs 300lbs and is telling their patients to lose weight. But as one of my grad. school professors said, I am a wounded healer and it was helpful to hear from other wounded healers at the conference. I had a great time getting away with friends and I'm wondering, when do I get to go again?

That time of year

It seems like everyone around here has been getting sick. Just when Ian recovered from his stomach thing, I started having sinus problems. Ethan too. He had been congested and coughing for weeks. After two weeks of it, I took him to the allergist and she said he was fine, no infection. A week later, his cough had worsened to him coughing all day and night so I took him back and he had an infection. I talked to her about my symptoms as well because I have an infection. (Sinus infections have some weird symptoms, it seems like they are similar to colds because of the coughing and congestion but they can also make you nauseous, lightheaded, and extremely fatigued). The very night Ethan started treatment for his infection he woke up in the middle of the night freaked out because he was wheezing and barking at the same time. We gave him several doses of his emergency breathing treatments in a short period of time and it didn't help much, so needless to say we were all up all night. In the morning I took him to the doctor, this time the pediatrician because his asthma doctor wasn't open yet. The doctor explained that some kids who have asthma will just have wheezing which is bad enough but when you have both the wheezing and the barking it gets pretty scary. He said we should have taken him to the ER because the meds we use via nebulizer don't work for the barking and the ER's meds do. The only other thing that works is the prednisone. That is a much hated medication around our house but within a half hour of giving it to him, he stopped the barking. Last night his coughing was bad initially but he slept most of the night until 5am. So he is making great improvements and hopefully will be back to school tomorrow. I think I've decided to give my chiropractor a crack at him--pun intended. He's been telling me for the last 3 yrs now that he can help the kids with their asthma and sinus problems and I've always been uncomfortable with the idea but at this point, I'll do anything.

Air Show

This weekend the boys went with George and some friends to the air show. I was planning on going too but wasn't feeling well so I stayed home (think I have a sinus infection). They looked at planes and did a little "boot camp" at the army booth and watched the airshow.

School Progress

Ethan's teacher talked with me this morning about his progress in Pre-K. I mentioned in a previous post how happy we are with her. She has spent a lot of time trying to find ways to challenge Ethan and keep him from getting bored. This morning she said she decided that she will no longer be giving him the worksheets to do that the other kids in the class are doing because it is pointless. She said that while the other kids are doing their assignments, she'll have him working on writing sentences, spelling and math worksheets. I was a little concerned that he would feel weird being given completely different work but she didn't think it would be an issue. She will also be sending him home with homework to do journaling and reports on topics that he researches on the computer. She continues to encourage us to have him tested soon so that he can be placed immediately where he should be when he starts kindegarten. We plan on touring a private school in our area and interviewing them about the enrichment programs they offer to see if they will be a good fit for him. The only issue is finding the time for both of us to go...

Holiday Prep.

This time of year has been intensely crazy, especially for someone like me who prefers a more quiet, laid back life. We've been planning our upcoming Christmas party and I've sent out the invites (first Saturday in December). It's our eighth party so there's no way we can stop having them now! I'm going out of town soon for Women of Faith, followed by having everyone here for Thanksgiving. As soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleaned and put away we have to decorate for our party. December also has us planning our Advent activities for the boy's, which I have yet to even take a look at. We are planning a trip to TN, by route of Disney. We want to see the Christmas lights at Disney so we want to stop either on the way to TN or on the way back for a couple of nights and hopefully swing by my grandfather's as well. We are hoping for a stay in Chatt. for 5 days or so and hope that our friend's will have their baby while we are there (hear that baby Niya?). Christmas finds us in Sebring with the family and our 13th anniversary is at the end of December. A great way to end the year, I say! With all this going on, I've decided to get all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped ASAP. And since it takes a month for Christmas presents to make their way to Alaska, I've not no time to lose (last year I sent them out two weeks before Christmas and they got there two weeks after Christmas, I don't want a repeat). Wish me luck!

Funny I should say that...

It's funny how I mentioned in my previous post about what I've been reading and how I am needing to apply it with the normal craziness at our house. In the midst of Ian having a stomach virus, our well stopped working. (Meaning no running water in which to use for cleaning up messes from a kid who is sick). With George gone for a couple of days at the FD, I am clueless about fixing things around the house. Turns out our pump was busted. We got a new pump today, yay! I really had to laugh and say a prayer of thanks to God that he had been preparing me for this extra challenging time through our bible study and other things I've been reading and studying.

Ephesians Study

Our couple's small group met at our house last night and we studied Ephesians 6 about the amor of God. We had a great discussion about the schemes of the evil one and all the tactics he uses to turn us away from Christ. This reminded me of a great book "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis. In the book a superior demon is teaching another demon how to get a Christian to stumble, get distracted and not remain faithful to God. I shared how our frequent illnesses around our house keep us distracted from remaining faithful in prayer and the word, from our calling, and from the pursuit of holiness. And how many times do I let the devil use our struggles with our health to distract me from Christ! I think we all have things in our lives that we let get in the way of what God has called us to do; be it financial issues, relational issues, health issues, etc. We need to encourage each other to stand strong and resist the tempations that are thrown our way and stay focused on God and his word. I am getting an opportunity to put on my amor of God today. We had planned on going on a date tonight and a half hour before the sitter was to arrive, Ian wasn't feeling well so I cancelled the date. I am praying I "will be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." Ephesians 6:10.

Ian's First Day of Preschool

Today was Ian's first day of preschool. He is starting school about 8 months earlier than Ethan did. He's been coming with me for 2 years to drop off and pick up Ethan so he is really comfortable there. He didn't cry when I dropped him off, though I could feel my eyes burning:) The teacher said he did great and only asked for his puppy once.

Parent's Visit

My parent's have been in town visiting this weekend. The boy's have enjoyed having them here and they especially have had fun splashing grandma in the pool. They took us out to eat for all our birthday's on Halloween and we decided after to go to a nearby shopping area where the stores were giving out candy. Ian had the most fun, I think. Whenever he was handed candy, he did not want to let it go and ended up with a lot of melted chocolate:) My parents are looking at houses around the area and trying to decide what part of Florida they would like to move to.

The Prayer of the Lord

My latest book review for Reformation Trust is a new book by R.C. Sproul called "The Prayer of the Lord." This book goes through each phrase of the Lord's Prayer and discusses how to apply it to our prayer lives. Prayer for me always has it's ups and downs and I found this book to be very encouraging, helpful and easy to read. I have always found R.C. Sproul's books to be easy for us laypersons to understand and have appreciated how he explains theological truths in a very clear manner. Many of us use the ACTS acronym in our praying and he shows how the acronym relates to the prayer that our Lord taught. Most Christians have memorized the Lord's Prayer but may not have realized the significance in what Christ was teaching about prayer. The past few months I've have been writing down my prayers so that I can stay on track (especially because of all the distractions at my house) and this book is a great help in keeping me focused on what is honoring and glorifying to God in prayer and what is not. There is a very useful appendix at the end of the book titled "If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?" This is a question I'm sure many of us have asked during our Christian life and Dr. Sproul really helps make clear why God has called us to pray and how our prayers are used for His glory, our growth and for the carrying out of His sovereign plan.

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up...Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:13-18