Party Animal

Poor thang all tuckered out from partying at 3 a.m. For some reason Isaac thinks that is an appropriate to be up and cooing and smiling. For a couple hours.

Yeah, as if I mind. At least not while Dale is home and I can sleep in later. When he gets back to work in another week I'm going to be in trouble.

I think Isaac needs his counterpart cousin to come and teach him about those 7 - 9 hour stretches at night. Pfffft.

Off to kiss those chubby cheeks!

God's Forethought

I know that you know that we all know that God knows all. Yesterday, today, forever, He knows all. Praise God for that.

But what I like is that He knows that we don't know it all, and never can, because we aren't God, and never will be, so He gives us some information to explain things that may not be obvious. Especially when we are talking about different cultures.

For example, in 1 Chronicles 5:

"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be recknoned after the birthright. For Juday prevailed above his bretheren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's: ) The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

Nice little beginning to some geneology, but what does that have to do with anything? Well, while I was reading it I got a chuckle out of the tone of the first two verses. Picture a teacher at a lecturn... "Now the sons of Reuben the first born of Israel... for he WAS the firstborn... " then going thru the two verses and finially ending and retiterating... "The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstbonr of Israel..."

The emphasizing is not mine, but already in there. Like the reader was trying to make sure we understood about the geneology. Also, notice the writer points out the geneology line does NOT follow the birthright. What is so interesting about that? First of all, if you aren't Jewish, and a regular Joe Shmoe Christian reading the Bible, you aren't going to be proficient in the knowledge of Jewish customs. The neat part is that God knew that Gentiles, unfamiliar with the ways of the Jewish geneology would be reading His Word one day. So He told the writer to put that little bit of instruction in the second verse. He did that just for me. Just for you. Because He knew that we wouldn't know.

Secondly, if you follow out the blood line geneology, and not the birth right line, you will go through people like David, Ruth and Boaz (Ruth wasn't even one of the "chose" people), and Rhahab the harlot. All those people, righteous and unrighteous, orthodox Jewish, non practicing Jews, godly and ungodly, what have you... all lead to the line of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So.. what? Well, if you didn't know that the birth right line was NOT the geneology line, you would be confused, and maybe even think the Bible has errors, etc.

I am so thankful the Lord gave us His Word, and we can read it and learn something new no matter how old we are, or how long we have been reading.

Oh, and by the way, you DO have to read it to learn from it. *wink*

Whatchamacallit

Signs of the times...

My 12 year old son while setting up the Monopoly game...
"Which icon do you want to be?"


In the thrift store, my 8 year old sees some old LP's and says:"Wow, look at the size of those DVD's!"

And I still love the daughter's canopic jar with the "intentions" in it. Hehehehe.

What cute things do your little blessing say?

Nursing.. the Reality

We've all had those wonderful images of mother and child crammed into our brains. What is more natural than a mother feeding her baby? The picture is so precious, and so sweet... and yet, so unreal! It isn't the baby just latches onto to the mother, and all goes well. No no no. Not every baby is born with that innate sense of what to do when presented with the food source.

I picture it something like this...

First you train the baby to latch on properly... mouth wide open, tongue down, and build up "toughness" so your toes don't curl every time he latches on.

Okay.. so far so good. Now everything is picture perfect, right?

Wrong.

Now the fun really starts. You've toughened up, yay! At least the pain is gone. Now feeding time goes something like this:

Baby awakes from a rare nap crying like he hasn't eaten in a month of Sundays. Mama goes in to change his diaper. Baby cries even harder, like he's going to burst a gasket. He wants food, and he wants it NOW.

You try to hurry through the change, but you realize as you are undoing his clothes, that he is wet all up one side of his onsie. It's a complete delete and reinstall. Baby continues to protest the delay, but there's nothing you can do but move it along.

You get is outer and inner clothing off, and open up his diaper. It is not just a wet diaper. You are thankful the diaper cover held in the mustard and continue to change baby. He continues to cry. Now he is hungry, cold and totally exposed.

Diaper change is over, and hands are washed and Mama sits down with the wee babe. He latches on like he is going to turn the spicket inside out. Mama is glad the "ouchie" part of nursing is already over. Mama notices that there is milk leakage, evidenced by wet spots on her shirt. She makes a mental note to change once the feeding is over.

Now the scene is picture perfect, right?

Nope. Don't get comfortable. Baby latches on with a great latch, only to break off gagging. The milk let down was a little more than he was prepared for. He latches back on and is able to keep up with the flow. He starts getting a little restless. Mama unlatches baby and puts him up to her shoulder where he lets out a belch that would make a trucker blush. That's not all he lets out. Now Mama has another reason to change her shirt, as baby has regurgitated all over the front and inside of Mama's blouse.

Mama switches sides and just as baby is gulping milk happily he stops, stays latched on like a pro, face turns red, then there is this horrendous sound that comes from the diapered end of things. Mama ignores that for the moment as baby is happily nursing again. She just prays that the diaper is containing the explosion.

Now things are picture perfect, right?

I trow not.

Mama relaxes and looks down to gaze at the wonderful baby feeding. Then notices that the side she just got done feeding on is leaking milk again. Can anyone say "Got Milk"? Dh walks in and notices the big wet spot on the front of her blouse and moo's at her.

Baby is not nursing quietly by the way. He makes all manner of grunts and coos, and even smiles like he is laughing at her when he fills his diaper and spits up on her. Then he chokes on more milk and gets it up his nose. He tries to stay latched on while sneezing, and Mama is really really really glad that the beginning achiness of nursing is passed.

Finally baby seems done, and Mama lifts him up to her shoulder, where he again lets out a burp that shakes the rafters. She smiles and talks to him, then notices a wet spot on the diaper area. She puts him down in the crib for a second so she can reassemble her clothing, making note of a little mustard colored spot. Uhoh. She quickly picks up the baby. Yup. A nice mustard spot on the sheets.

Mama takes baby over to the changing table and strips all clothing off. The baby, that is. She does another complete delete and reinstall. She puts baby safely in the middle of the big bed, surrounded by a garrison of pillows. Baby is contentedly watching the ceiling fan twirl around. Mama strips the sheet off the crib, and puts it all in the dirty clothes hamper. She is just finishing washing her hands when she remembers her shirt needs changing. She does so and lovingly cuddles the baby.

And just think, in another half an hour she gets to start all over again!

Family Fun!

We don't usually have a family fun night in the middle of a school week, but with Dale on lay off for the month we wanted to get together with another family for an evening of games. This family is the same one we trade off piano lessons for math tutoring. The dh, Art, is a pastor at a like minded church not far from us. Anyway, he works a second job, and has Monday and Tuesdays off from work right now. The timing has never really been right, but this week it worked out because of Dale being off from work and also their kids were in winter break and didn't have school. So, of course, with any good Baptist get together, you have to have food. We made a ton of pizza, and this is what was LEFTOVER. There was about twice as much to begin with. We had cheese pizza, veggie pizza, and a meat lovers type of pizza. Amy brought her wonderful brownies. They are huge, and moist and gooey, and she put peanut butter chips in them. So delicious! Oh yeah, we had a huge salad too, just to get something healthy in there.

Here is the leftover pizza, combined so as not to take up so much room:



It never ceases to amaze me how a baby can sleep through all the commotion of a group of kids tearing about and games going on.



Here are some shots of the group, and one with Isaac awake.









Oh, I forgot to mention, Art doesn't usually look like that, but he was being a wise guy and making a face on the camera. Just for that, I wanted to be sure to point it out on. Pffft.

On a side note, we weighed Isaac last weekend and he is now up to about 14 lbs. He is really chunking out. I have my 8 week post partum check up on Friday. I can't believe it has been 8 weeks already! I am getting my stamina back, or whatever the sleep deprived version of that is. I even started walking again on the nice days. Today is blustery, so I will try and log some time on the stationary bike instead of walking.

Isaac hates to go to sleep. He hates to "miss" anything. It makes me laugh to watch him trying to fight off gravity as it pulls at his eyelids. He goes through this cry cry cry.. then calms down. He starts to be very still, but still has his eyes open and trying to take everything in. Then slowly, the eyes start closing more, till they are at half mast. He wiggle wiggle wiggles in effort to stay alert. Then his eyes are in a tiny little slit, and he is still fighting it. You can see his little eyes rolling up in his head, but he still fights it. Sometimes he cries more, sometimes not. Then finally his lids shut, but he does this raising eyebrow type thing, even though his eyes are closed. As if he is STILL trying to pry them open. If he spent as much time just allowing the sleep to take over and actually nap, he would get a lot more rest. And so would Dale and I! LOL. That's okay.

He is interacting more with us in general. Coo'ing, and smiles, and looking around very alert. He does the vocalizing that is just soooo adorable! He is still a continual distraction, and Dale and I are terrible at sharing him. In fact, we often engage in selfish debate over who gets to hold him. The children get turns from time to time, but I have to admit that I like to keep him close to me at this point.

Have a blessed day!

Get Well Soon...

The last couple days I've had a nassy icky cold. I received this ecard from a very sweet and classy lady whose initials are M.O.M. I got a good chuckle out of it. (BTW M.O.M.... hope you don't mind I share this with others. Too good not to. I love you to the moon and back too!)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Say What?

Yesterday I did Jerusha's hair in a fancy fun braid. At the end of the day, before her bath, we took out her hair pretties and unbraided her hair. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and said "Hey, my hair is all fat!"



Today we were making canopic jars as a craft to go with our Ancient egypt. If you have studied anything about Egypt, you know that in the mummification process they take out certain organs like the stomach, liver, intestines, etc. and put them in the canopic jars. They leave the heart in the deceased, because they believe they will need it in the afterlife.

Anyway, Esther was looking into Elizabeth's canopic jar, who had put in some fake intestines she made. Esther said "Oh neat, you put in some intentions!"

Teeheee!

What is a Mama to Do?

As I look around the house I see many things that in my eyes, need to be tended to. Such as.. going through the childrens toys. And going through their clothes. And cleaning up the computer area. And doing some decluttering downstairs. Let's face it, the chore list never ends.

Instead, here is some of what we have been up to. The deep cleaning, and decluttering isn't getting done yet, but what is a Mama to do?

At least the basics are pretty much getting done. My more intensive "to do" list can wait for now. We also have our Missions conference coming up, April 8 -12. That sounds like a long way off, but the missionary family we are having in isn't musical at all, so we are going to have to do all the music ourselves this year. I have a little list of what we are working on, and ideas for specials and offeratories. We are already revving up the music practice time everyday.

Other than that, here is some of what we have been doing:

Who can resist this? There is no way you can convince me (or Dale for that matter) that doing anything else is time better spent. When the opportunity for a good snuggle fest arises, what is a Mama to do?



Or the opportunity presents itself to just enjoy the baby interacting, what is a Mama to do?



Of course, all that "cuteness" wears a body out, and when the baby falls asleep, what is a Mama to do?



Then he wakes up for a diaper change, and looks just soooo cute, what is a Mama to do?



The girls' hair is nice and long, and we had some extra time to experiment with some braiding, so what is a Mama to Do?





Caleb took the initiative and wanted to make a clock to help with learning to tell time, so what is a Mama to do?



The girls are interested in learning cross stitch, and need my help. What is a Mama to do?





Dh agrees that this book would be good to read through with the twins, and I decide that having a regular weekly "tea time" would be a good time to read it together. So what is a Mama to do?



So many things to do, and so little time. Some "duties" just natuarally take priority over others, and some of the mundane tasks get left behind. So, what is a Mama to do? :)

The Temple's Silent Construction

I found this interesting! I guess it never registered, or my leaky brain forgot.
This was in the Days of Praise, written by Henry M. Morris PhD.

"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building." (1 Kings 6:7)

Here is a remarkable testimony to the engineering and construction skills of the ancients. In order to erect the magnificent temple of Solomon, every portion was so carefully fabricated, far away from the construction site, that the building could be completely erected in reverent silence.

Furthermore, the stones were not small and rough. "They brought great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house" (1 Kings 5:18). They were quarried from limestone beds beneath the city and had to be laid in place. "And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers"(1 Kings 5:18).

In both its unique beauty and its silent assemblage, the temple is a striking type of the spiritual temple now being erected by the Holy Spirit. "Now therefore ye are... built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit:" (Ephesians 2:19-22).

In this spiritual temple, each new believer is a costly stone, carefully cut from the world's dark quarry, then silently placed in the growing structure by the Holy Spirit on the foundation of Jesus Christ, "to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house: (1 Peter 2:4-5). "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Here's the Plan, Folks

I've seen this email before, but it bears repeating, even if it is just to vent a bit. Enjoy, and thanks Dad for the email. ;)

This has been around before and still applies.

The Plan!

Robin Williams, wearing a shirt that says, 'I love New York ' in Arabic. You gotta love Robin Williams......Even if he's nuts! Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan. What we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.

Robin Williams' plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!)

'I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan.'

1) 'The US will apologize to the world for our 'interference' in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those 'good 'ole' boys', we will never 'interfere' again.

> 2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) No foreign 'students' over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a 'D' and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not 'interfere.' They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us 'Ugly Americans' any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH..learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?

'The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?' '

UFO Sighting!

No, I'm not talking of the extraterrestrial kind.. I'm talking about those projects in a special plastic tub waiting to be finished. Now that I am starting to get back into the groove of things here for the most part, and finding out what our "new" normal is, I am trying to work in some time to be creative at least every other day, hoping to get that to every day. In other words, a time to work on some sewing or craft projects that I enjoy.

I got this book from my Grandmother a while back when she was downsizing her fabric and quilting stuff. I decided to try one of the quick and easy patterns in it a while back, and I just now finished it.





Here is what I have been working on recently. It is a nine-patch quilt, machine pieced, and hand quilted. Obviously I'm not done with the quilting yet. I started this project before we moved over 3 years ago, and I am determined to get it done. It has been stashed away for a while. No more stashing.. going to finish it this time. The nice thing about hand quilting is that it is easy to stop and go whenever I need to. Of course, most sewing is like. The problem is the cutting out phase that takes a while. For example, I will soon be embarking on the Spring/Summer annual sew-a-thon here. The sewing part will take a while, but at least it can be done in snatches of time. But the cutting out is more of a challenge, because I need CHUNKS of time, and when the table isn't occupied by schooling, crafts, eating, etc. You can guess how often that is. Anyway.. my current hand quilting project: