Fear

Perhaps you are not fearful of thunderstorms like little Grace, but I know I struggle with fear and anxiety sometimes (like most other women I know)! I have been reading This Blog lately and it has just finished up a series on fear. I have enjoyed it so much lately and been so encouraged in the faith! It is worth checking out!

Find it here!

Psalm 56:3

Do you remember this verse?

Well, grace surely does. I knew it was going to storm tonight, so Jonathan and I have been talking to her all day about thunderstorms and rain and God taking care of us. The real test came tonight when I was by myself with both kids at bedtime and it started to pour and thunder. Grace made a B-line for my leg and attached herself there at the first rumble. So we turned off all noise making objects and sat on the sofa together and listened to the rain and thunder. We listened and talked. After about 15 minutes of this we cleaned up the living room, brushed teeth and headed to bed. We did everything in our normal bedtime routine and I put Grace in her bed, kissed her goodnight, told her I loved her, picked jack up from his bouncy seat (where he was waiting not so patiently;)) and left the room. It was still thundering loudly... Like shaking the walls thundering, but my girl didn't make a peep! She went on to sleep by herself! I am SO thankful for this! Maybe she is learning to trust in a God who not only made the rain and thunder but is in total control of it and everything else in the world! What a mighty God we serve! I hope Grace is always reminded of this in a thunderstorm : )

What Shall We Do When We All Go Out?

One of Grace's all time favorite library books (I've tried to buy it and its out of print) is What Shall We Do When We All Go Out? By Shari Halpern. We checked it out again this week, and what a great week to sing the song and answer that question! So, what shall we do when it 80+ in Georgia in February, we've been sick inside for a weekend and we all finally get to go out?!?! Well...

We pick daffodils.



We go for a stroll.





We blow dandelion seeds into the air (just like Nicholas the rabbit).





We play with the sand table.





We swing in the swing.






We pretend to be flying airplanes.





We watch the "flying airplanes".





And of course we look for ants and then dig in the dirt!





It's great to play outside!!!

Budding Artist

Grace drew some pictures this morning. She ran up to Jonathan and told him, "I drew a picture of you! See, here is your hair, and I drew you a mouth, cause, well, you have a mouth. See, that's your mouth..." funny girl!

Another picture of daddy... I'm not sure if she was trying to color it in or If she just got frustrated and started to scribble. She is showing some perfectionist tendencies (can't imagine who she gets it from ;)) and sometimes gets frustrated if her drawing doesn't look exactly like she wants it to. I am trying to give her lots of positive feedback and explain that its ok if a 2 year old can't draw a perfect portrait, but I am still a little worried. Any suggestions for what to do with a perfectionist little one are appreciated!!!


And we have also been doing shape collages (with glue sticks!) this week. Here is one from this morning. She got to paste and color with pencils and markers all on one piece of paper! And I got the kitchen cleaned! Yay!!!

I Spy

More Spring...

Hilarious

Grace had decided that this...

Is hilarious! Jack is in total agreement :)

150 Stickers!

I can't believe I forgot to post this important milestone... Grace filled up her entire potty chart the other day! That's approximately 150 successful potty trips! This is what she chose for her big potty prize... Buz and Woody!

This is kind of funny to me because she hasn't ever really even seen Toy Story. She just knows that her friends Benjamin and Samuel have Buzz and Woody toys, and Benjamin talks about it all the time.
She kept on saying "that Woody, he's a cowboy. That means he rides cows. But momma, where is his cow? We don't have a cow for him!"
I had to convince her that sleeping with the two little plastic guys wasn't the best idea. I could just see her rolling over on one in the night and waking up with a boot in the eye :)
Not only did she get her little Buzz and Woody but I also let her choose a special treat from the bakery! She chose a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese and pecan icing with a cherry on top... She chose it because of the cherry! She ate that cherry so fast I couldn't even get a picture of her with it! Ha! She did not get that from me!


We are still not all the way there, but Grace is making good steady progress in potty training! Yay!!!

What's in a Name?

Some may call him Dumbo...

My girl calls him Gumbo :-)

Do You Have A Fever?

I picked up one of these forehead thermometers at cvs when I was getting stuff for Jonathan yesterday. Grace thinks it's great! So great that she wanted to play with it all day. When I put it up she found a pretty good replacement to play with...

A size 3t sicker from a new shirt:)


And two more funny things my little doctor does. When she uses the play stethoscope to listen to my chest she says, "okay, mommy, now smell!" (instead of breathe deeply... Because that's what you do when you smell... You breathe deeply). And the funnies thing is that when she uses the play light to check my eyes she holds the "light" with one hand and moves the other back and forth JUST like dr. Brahr does. She is super serious about it too. It is the funniest thing!

Sick Sick Sick

We don't usually get sick at our house. This week, however, has been he exception to the rule. Jonathan has had the flu and this morning (after fevers last night) we took the kiddos to the doc and she confirmed it. Yep, now the kids have it too. Grace is the toughest kid I've ever seen. She doesn't act very sick a all. Jack, on the other hand, is pretty much pitiful. He is sleeping and nursing and whimpering. He still smiles at his sister, though! I had them both on the floor next to each other to get them ready this morning, and they held hands. Made my heart happy on such a tough morning : ) what a blessing to have two kids and a husband to take care of!

Breakfast conversations

We were finishing up breakfast and grace asked me about her blueberries. Here is how the conversation went:

G: did you get these from blueberry hill? ( like in blueberries for sal)
Me: no, darlin. Remember, we got these at walmart.
G: well, do we have a blueberry hill?
Me: no. Not in milledgeville.
G: well, where is blueberry hill?
Me: I think it's in Maine.
G: oh. Is there a Maine in Georgia?
Me: no. Main is very far away from Georgia.
G: can we go today?

This mornings Bible verse...


I asked grace to think of a song we could sing yo make a joyful noise... Grace chose to sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" :)

To Make Jack Laugh

Use this Lion finger puppet to tickle his neck...

If you make Lion "roar" while you do it, Jack will laugh harder :)

Naptime

I was cleaning up lunch dishes today while grace and jack were playing in their room (that is a nice sentence, isn't it). Grace was running back and forth from the living room to the bedroom... On a mission as always. I finished the dishes and went to check things out. I was greater with a "Shhh! Mommy, its naptime!". Grace had gotten herself and jack ready for a pretend nap. Here is grace, playing the game.

Jack, of course, was wide awake and smiling... Don't take it personally, Grace, that's how he is with Mama too.

I Spy

We took a walk yesterday. We did not see "that doggie". Grace thought he "might be at his grandmother's house or somethin'".

We did, however, see something else...


A first sighting of spring! Oh, how I hope it is not just a fluke!

Story Time With Bear

Bear lived inside a plastic bag in the office of the BCM for nearly 10 years before Grace moved in and started visiting Mrs. Terri every day. Now bear has a home and a very good friend to take care of him and put him to bed and feed him and play with him and read to him. Bear is a very lucky bear to have found such a good friend... And Grace is a very lucky girl to have found such a good bear.

Sprite

We picked up Chick-fil-A for dinner tonight. Grace got a sprite (this is a really big deal) with her kids meal. I let her hold it on the way home (an even bigger big deal). She kept on taking sips and saying, "ahhh! This sprite is SO good!" Then she said, "yeah, it's got just a little bit of honey in it. That's why it's Soooo sweet. I just love honey. It's good for my tummy. Don't worry mommy. I'm not gonna drop it. I'm holding on with TWO hands! TWO hands, mommy!" Then she coughed and spit it out all over the place. Her response, "oh well, it was just an accident. We can clean it up. You know, mommy, accidents, well, they just happen sometimes."

I just love this girl!

Tuesday Morning

All we did this morning was go to the library. This is what that required...
Jack wakes up.
I put on the projector and music so he will be happy while I go to the restroom
I feed and change jack
I take him to the living room and get him set up with some toys on a pallet
I ask grace go to the potty. She doesn't want to. I count to 2. She obliges (very slowly). I empty and wash the potty. She washes her hands. I give her a sticker (which she wants to place anywhere but covering a dot on her potty chart). She finally puts the sticker over a dot.
I put biscuits in the oven.
I get clothes together and take a shower, brush through my hair, and get dressed.
I hear the timer go off and get the biscuits.
I check on the baby then start the dishes (from last night)
I unload the dishwasher then reload it then wash cookie sheets and graces tray by hand.
I pick up all the dirty clothes in the living room and put them in the wash.
I try to get grace to potty again. She does better this time.
I change jack and try to get him to go to sleep (early so he will be able to be up and fed for storytime). He isn't sleepy, so it takes a while for me to get him calmed down. I rock the pack n play while he looks at me. Finally he dozes off.
I cut the watermelon, and put it and biscuits on the plates.
I get grace to the table, pull her hair back, put on a bib, say the blessing.
Go back to the kitchen to get honey and drinks.
Eat breakfast and talk about our day/bible verses/etc...
Jack wakes up.
I try to hurry grace up and give her vitamins.
Jonathan leaves for work.
I get her down and wash her hands and face and brush her teeth.
We both go get jack (who is screaming).
While g stands over his pack n play talking to him, I clean up all the books that cover the bedroom floor.
I get jack up.
I feed and change him.
I put him on the pallet again.
I get grace dressed and do her hair.
She would rather play with her truck.
Finally she sits still.
I go outside and put jack's car seat base in the camry.
I get jack dressed.
I find my shoes.
I make sure I have everything I need ready to take to the bank.
I get grace some juice.
We have to have a lesson about please and thank you.
I put jack in his carseat.
Grace wants to bring her truck into the library. I tell her she can bring it, but it has to stay in the car.
I find all the library books and put them in our book bag.
I turn off all the lights.
I let grace go out first.
I takes her forever to walk down the steps, but she doesn't want me to help.
I put jack in the car and realize that I didn't put his base in the middle seat. What was I thinking? Oh well, I'll change it later.
Grace is jumping from one stepping stone to another making her way to the car.
She hears a lawn mower and gets scared and runs to me.
I calm her down and put her in the car.
She is complaining because she wants her juice.
I get in the car, find the juice and give it to her.
She can't reach jack because I put his seat in the wrong place.
We have a conversation about this and how I'll change it later.
We drive to the library (hitting every red light).
Finally we get there and find a parking spot.
I make sure I have all the things we need to bring in with us.
I get jack out.
I get grace out.
I walk across the Parking lot with the baby carrier in one hand and graces hand in the other.
We make it to the sidewalk and grace runs ahead to the door.
Thank goodness for the handicap opener.
I press the button.
We go in.
Grace wants to put each book in the book return one by one.
I help.
We go to the childrens stacks and head towards the story time room.
People are already in there.
We are late.
Grace wants to stop and look a decorations.
I finally get us in the room.
We find a seat.
I take a deep breath.
We made it:)

Feet!!!

Dessert Auction!

We had a great time at the BCM tonight. Here are a few of the things we did...

We had a cupcake eating contest for the kids as well as for the students. Benjamin won!

Eat the doughnut off the rope game... Andrew won! (the Elston men were racking up @ the BCM tonight!)





Cookie decorating contest. Grace participated but didn't win :(


Cameron and Parker won the wafer building contest (30 seconds to build a tower).


Jonathan won the powdered sugar doughnut hole dart game. We played 3 rounds of cake walk, and Bid on desserts several times. But the culmination of the nights events was when Jonathan got a pie to the face... Andrew and Benjamin did the honors because they were the highest bidders! I got good pictures with the real camera, but it was too dark outside for the iPhone to work well... Just go to Andrews fb page to see the evidence! It was a great night and we raised a few hundred dollars for missions!!! Woo-hoo!!! Now, I've got to figure out what to do with these desserts! Any takers?

Licking the Spoon

This morning Grace had her first encounter with homemade sweetened whipped cream... No Coolwhip here, folks! She was more than happy to claim that spoon as her own : )

I claimed the mixing bowl.

You know that kitchen aid mixer sure does take up a lot of counter space, but when you need it, well, it sure does get the job done! We've been baking up a storm here all morning getting ready for the BCM dessert auction tonight! Speaking of helpful appliances... my dishwasher is working on it's third load today!

Scripture and Discipline

So this whole being a parent thing... It is just as hard as everybody said it would be... And just as rewarding at the same time. Two of the hardest parts to me are discipline and being faithful to teach Biblical truths. Recently we've had a bit of a breakthrough with both, so I thought I would share (and have a record for personal encouragement when things get difficult again... like they are sure to get :))

In theory it seems simple, discipline and teaching the Bible, that is. But in reality it takes (for me at least) organization, dedication, endurance, and lots of patience. This book has helped a lot lately!

It's the ABC Bible Verse Book :) before Christmas we were working through a chatechism with grace. This was great and she really seemed to enjoy it and respond well to our "question time". She learned basic truths about the nature of God and man and sin etc... But after Christmas she just wasn't into it anymore. And honestly, I wasn't either. And let's all be honest about the fact that it is about near impossible to get a two year old to learn something if they have no desire to do so. So I didn't press the point. The last thing I wanted to do was make learning about God a negative experience.

SO I changed tactics. I found this book and we started taking a verse day by day and talking about it. Grace LOVES this. And the fact that each verse has a picture and a corresponding alphabet letter makes it even better. We usually do our "Bible Verse Book Time" at breakfast. Jack is napping and it's the beginning of a new day and we are usually in pretty good moods. We cover several of the verses that we already know and then look at a new one. I read the verse and then ask grace if she knows what it means. Then I show her the picture and explain (to the best of my ability) what is happening in the picture and what the verse means. She loves to hear what the "situation" is on each page, and instead of just memorizing words I feel like she is understanding a bit better how the words apply to real life situations.





Which brings me to the discipline part of the scenario. Jonathan and I have decided to go the time out route with grace for discipline. It just seems to work with her personality. We'll have to see what works with jack in a few moths and adjust accordingly. In practice I think time out actually works with my personality as well. I need that 2 minutes of her sitting in the corner to calm down and make a clear headed decision about how a situation should be handled!

So this is how our time out routine goes. Once she has served her time I sit down on the floor in front of her. I ask her why she had to come and sit in time out. She usually gives the right answer and knows exactly what she did wrong. I ask her how she is going to change her behavior and she usually gives the right answer (sometimes she needs a little prompting). Then I ask her to apologize. She says, "mommy, I am sorry for ______. Will you please forgive me?" I say, "yes, I forgive you." then we hug and say I love you's and go complete the unfinished task at hand.

But lately I have been adding our bible verses and chatechism into out time out routine. It is working SO well! After she tells me what she did wrong we talk about it using the knowledge we have of the bible. For instance, if she says something disrespectful and goes to time out we will say "honor thy father and mother" or "be ye kind one to another" and "as for me and my house, we will serve the lord". And then we use our chatechism knowledge to remember why it is important to do what the bible teaches... to love and honor and obey God... And we want to Glorify God because this is why he made us!

So the point is not that she has to obey mommy because mommy said so or because I want her to be well liked by her teachers or even because she needs to have good manners in life or I have a need for an orderly household, but it is because it's important to do as the bible teaches. And we desire to honor Gods commands in the bible because we desire to honor God.

I am sure there are tons of Christian parenting books out there that talk for pages and pages about discipline, but honestly I haven't read much. Jonathan does most of the reading in our family. I don't like it. I know I should, and I'm working on it, but I just don't like it. So I suppose you can say this has been a bit of a breakthrough for me... in the way I look at a discipline opportunity. A great opportunity to reinforce biblical truths... Not the main teaching time, mind you. Just a good time for life application lessons for a 2 year old :)

And can a 2 year old learn 26 bible verses and pages of questions about God and humans and sin nature and forgiveness? Why yes!!! And it can even be fun!!! But it has to be important to mommy and daddy... The 2 year old will see how important it is to her parents and desire to have the same knowledge... And enjoy the praises she gets when she learns!

But if the 2 year old is Grace Nida don't even think about trying to talk about psalm 56:3. She wants nothing to do with the "afraid one"... She is a little scared of thunder ;) I suppose the next time there is a thunder storm (if it ever rains again) we will have another good opportunity for reinforcing biblical truths... Because no matter how much she wants to avoid it, she knows this verse by heart;)





Ps. It really helps to make up silly little songs out of verses and sing them all day long... And you may even find that YOU start to learn verses and apply them to your own situations... For instance, it is much harder to become perturbed at your fellow walmart shopper if you are humming "be ye kind one to another" under your breath.... Or say, your 2 year old is singing full volume from the shopping cart your pushing... I'm just sayin'.

Parade!

It's homecoming weekend at GCSU! We walked down to hancock street to watch the parade this morning! Here are some pictures...

Samuel and Grace (there was no way they were gonna be looking at the camera with a parade going on!)

There really wasn't much to it other than the band, fraternities, sororities, cars,


Honor societies...


The lawn lowers...


And of course a bobcat! (also the school mascot)


Ha! Do we live in a little town or what! But the kids didn't care one bit! The got candy, didn't have to sit around for long, and got to run outside! It was a great morning!





Later after lunch we played in the backyard for a while. Everyone (even Jack and baby Lucy) had turns in the swing! And grace got to play with her sand table and take Lucy on a walk to the fountain for the second day in a row!


And did you notice the shorts! Yep, it's 77 out there folks! Thats February in Georgia for ya!