A Mother's [Daunting] Task

I posted this on our church blog, but thought it was worth sharing. It is both rebuking & encouraging to me!

How can eternity influence a mother’s daily tasks?

[Excerpt from a sermon by John Piper.]

I believe it is a very high calling to be a mom charged with teaching everything she possibly can to one, two, or eight kids.

The women who flourish most and who delight most in that calling—and who are best at it—are not women whose lives are enclosed by their houses. They are women who are aware of the world. They’re aware of God’s global purpose. They’re aware of the ultimate purposes of God in history. They’re aware of things in history and in the far off reaches of the world today that God is doing. And those are part of what they want to build into these children. They want to raise global Christians, world Christians.

A mother will delight most in the little baby in front of her when she has a vision of God and a vision of the world that’s big enough to admit that this little child has a destiny in front of him or her and might become this or that.

If she is totally absorbed in her little home—with no vision for the world—then I think her domestic scene is probably going to shrivel up on her, and she is going to feel that it is small and constraining. But if she sees it in the wider context of what she is a part of in the missionary enterprise, I think every detail of her life can take on a global significance, indeed, an historical significance.

I really believe that. When I used to sit down for devotions with our four boys at home my mind wasn’t simply, “OK I have a duty as a dad: I’m supposed to do devotions at night.” My mind was, “What will they become?”

Ralph Winter used to say that nothing has an impact on kids except what they do daily. So we did prayer & devotions daily.

The goal isn’t just to fulfill some little task that parents are supposed to do. Rather, you’re building men & women who hopefully someday will have absorbed so much of God and so much of the Bible that it’s going to shape their whole world.

Amidst the dishes, the diapers, the laundry, and the carpools, might we never forget that we are shaping the world-view of our children. They need to daily see a big vision of God and a big vision of His global purposes.

I hope you all have a very blessed Mother's day weekend [I know I will because of this sweet little bundle AND a special daddy]!

Fresh Coat

We are excited to have a fresh look in our living room! The funny thing is, it is not even close to our original plan! I am currently in love with the whole yellow/gray combo (hence the blog colors) and so it was our intention to do 3 walls of gray, one of yellow. So we finished the 3 walls - pewter gray - that sounds pretty gray, right? Nope, the final look was definitely blue. Hmmmm....what to do? Well, we weren't going to be super picky, because, well, we probably won't be in this house forever, and it turns out, we really liked the color! The gray/blue ended up being really warm & cozy. But blue & yellow were certainly not the scheme we wanted! So Andrew pushed for a beige color and we decided to go for it. Thankfully, we were able to return the unopened yellow!

So, from this.......................

to this........................

Dilemma #2: We have this space behind the TV that is actually a chimney and so we can't put a picture there or anything. We toyed with the idea of word art or something, but then I had the really brilliant (haha!) idea of doing a paint design of some kind. And the stripes were born.

  

So, then we decided to do the opposite color stripe on the opposing wall to tie them together. And we really love how it turned out! It's give the room a little more interest!

We had planned to put a large picture on this wall, but it seems ok without it, any thoughts?

For Stephanie, :) our storage space for G's toys which doesn't make it feel quite so much like a kid's playroom after he goes to bed!

So, for a mere $16 in paint, we have a space that feels a little more like home. Still have the [lovely] blue carpet, but, we have the worst behind us, so we're very thankful!

1-5......................

Our little man turns 15 months today! I love how independent he is getting. (well, he thinks so anyways.) But he IS much more helpful when he is getting dressed! He wants to communicate so badly, but unfortunately I didn't take [ejhekjhdsfawkjk] language in college. :( His favorite word is beeeeeeee. He basically calls everything that!
Rockin' the plaid shorts!
And getting lots of funny expressions...like this one!

we're getting some curls!

Too Grown Up!!

Fun at the Park

LOVES the slide and playgrounds in general!

Doing this blanket thing has been very interesting. Now when we pull it out, he goes and sits on it!  Lots of times he runs around the house and will play randomly with different toys for just a few minutes at a time usually. But being on the blanket has somehow caused him to become very focused in playing. He will sit & play with just a few toys for 15 or 20 minutes with no problems. So that was unexpected, but we love that!

A little reading (loves his Alpha books!) and legos before bed.

When he eats he will often point to the fridge or something around him and I will shake my head, no, you can't have that. So now, he has started pointing to things and shaking his own head no! It's like he already knows the answer, but he just wants to double check. :)

He loves to stack blocks & legos. And then knock them down. Why do boys just instinctively do that?!!

He loves piggy back rides down the stairs. (which saves on my arms!)

He is clearly learning between obedience & disobedience!

He's making it quite clear when something doesn't go his way. (definitely working on that, as I am sure we will be for a long time!)

I am amazed at how many things he can understand.

He loves following the big kids around at church (and annoying them I am sure!)

He loves giving kisses (my favorite!)

He started doing some whining. boooooooooooo!

We are easing out of a morning nap. and I love that!

Such a fun stage. I AM  looking forward to the days coming when he can communicate exactly what he is trying to say!

Phases Behind Us, Part 1

I mentioned in G's 12month update that we were soon saying bye-bye to the passy. I honestly didn't think it would be that big of a deal, since he only used it in his crib for sleeping and it would usually fall out of his mouth as soon as he fell asleep. I had read that you should try to kick it by 12 months, because after that is when they develop stronger attachments to things. So one night I decided to put him down without it. You would have thought I put him to bed without food. He was so sad! So.........I caved. I couldn't handle how sad it made him. But I definitely should have followed the advice because throughout his 13th month I watched him seemingly grow more attached to it every day. In fact, he started finding it after he woke up and sticking it back in, which he had never done before! I tried cutting the tip off, like some had told me, but he was not going to fall for that trick!
So, at the end of 13 months, I knew it had to be done. Brace for it. Be strong. It's for his good!! [Mental picture - 3 yr.old with pacifier!]
Put him to bed without it, and yes, sad, sad tears for probably 30 minutes. Ugh. But he did go to sleep. The next nap, just a few minutes of fussing, next nap, right to sleep. WHEW. So, one night of 30 minutes of crying (which to a momma feels like f.o.r.e.v.e.r), but then we were done. Oh Happy Day!
I don't love the cry it out method. Thankfully, Graham has only had to do it a couple of times in his life. But I have learned, that when you know you are doing the absolute best for your baby, that is good and right and ok to do. Doesn't God do that with us? Allow us to go through hardships sometimes so we can enjoy the greater pleasures on the other side?

So, Mr Bink, it's been a good run. I couldn't have done it without you. You soothed our fussing baby many times. You kept meltdowns in check. You allowed for several peaceful airplane trips. And road trips. You helped us sleep-train to the 12-hour sleep at 14 weeks. You soothed our buddy right to sleep every time without crying. Thanks for all that. We can only hope that all our of children will love you as much as we do. :)

Check out this Give-A-Way!

So I have a new favorite company that I want to share! It's called Earth Mama Angel Baby. [And it's based out of Portland, Mrs.{B}]

 I especially love that G's Mama Hughes has always called him her angel baby!

They were kind enough to sponsor a give-a-way for Mamas over at my Momtourage site! So pop on over to my other site and enter, because I know you would love to win this!
[NOT restricted to Pittsburgh residents!]

Tell me: have you tried any of their products or do any of them look like something you would love to try?

PICKY? Say it ain't so!

Graham has become slightly choosy in the food category of late. It can't be! I don't know if I can deal with a picky eater. So tell me, how do kids become picky? They start on vegetables. Those are the first foods they are introduced to. How can they suddenly not like them? One thing I've noticed for Graham is texture. He absolutely won't touch a piece of broccoli, cooked or raw! And green veggies in general he seems to be slightly leery of. He has always loved green beans, and suddenly, not so much. He will still eat peas, but again, for the texture, I just think he likes anything in the shape of a ball. :) He has always had a strong aversion to eggs, weird, right? He really can't stand them - hard-boiled, scrambled, omelet... One success: for some reason he liked my recent zucchini & tomato frittata. That was shocking. But....it was good! :) He has also decided to steer clear of kidney beans as well. I will give him a mouthful of food with a bean mixed in (even mashed!) and he will pull out the food, take out the bean and put the rest back in his mouth. Ingenius, really! He WILL eat any fruit, any time, any where. Taking him thru the produce section at the grocery store almost causes him to hyperventilate. :) So far it's not too big of a deal. He still eats most things without a problem. We're just having to get kind of creative on how we sneak in the big-bad veggies  (since it's not really an option for him not to eat them)- zucchini & squash in his lasagna, peas & corn mixed in to his taco, lettuce & tomatoes in his chicken salad wrap (he loves anything in a tortilla!) or when desperation calls, even dipping a bite of a pasta dish in a dab of yogurt! The only problem is that I have to feed him these dishes. If we give him his own dish, he very seriously picks thru all the food and only pulls out the bits he wants. Hmmmm, I suppose he will only let me feed him for so long! A friend is passing along Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, I'm very interested to look at that! So...I am just wondering, does every kid go through choosy-stage? Do you have any tricks-of-the-trade?!

"Playpen in a Purse"

When we were expecting little G, we had taken a parenting class offered at our church.
Led by Randy & Lynne Hilton (parents of 8), they knew a thing or two about parenting!
One of the tips Lynne told us about was the "playpen in a purse" concept. Which, simply put, is training your child to stay on a blanket when necessary.
I thought it sounded like such a great idea, however, as time went on, we didn't really have a huge need for it to be put into practice. Well, until now! We recently went to dinner at a friend's house and since G finished eating before the rest of us, he took off like a little tornado. A little hard to enjoy chat & dinner with our hosts! SO, we decided, it was time!
Andrew actually did it with him for about 10 minutes one night, and of great shock to us - he understood immediately! He wasn't crazy-happy about it, but he understood! So the next day I decided to try it while I was working on the computer, since it's in a very non-kid-proof area. I put him on the blanket with his toys and immediately, sad, sad tears!! But the funny thing is, he realized he had to stay there and didn't even try to "escape". So after a few minutes of sadness, he got busy playing with his toys. And stayed content for about 10 minutes or so. amazing!
It came in handy again this week with our little projects going on!
Sometimes he'll look up at me and clap 2x (his please), and if I shake my head no, then he goes back to playing. Somewhat cute!!
So, it hasn't been tested out of our home, but we're certainly hoping it will make the difference between sitting & enjoying a meal vs. chasing after a very busy little guy!

Anybody have any other tips on training during this stage?