Who Needs Toys?

Memory

This morning was my last Entrusted class. We were challenged about the importance of Scripture memory. Challenged about the vitality of the Word of God. Challenged to have God's Word as close to us as possible. At all times. Challenged to memorize Scripture so that it is always with us.

I have never been a great "memorizer". Not my strong suit in school. Or these days either. So, when I first started this class back in the Fall, I was a little apprehensive about having to memorize a verse (sometimes 2) each week.

Thankfully, along with the Entrusted curriculum came a CD with all of the memory verses set to music. Listening to these "songs" has helped me a ton. Week after week, the verses have been "playing" in my heart, and I was able to memorize them one by one.

Today presented me with a greater challenge. The goal was to be able to recite each and every verse that we have memorized this year.....all 23 of them. Granted, I have been learning them all as the class went along, so this shouldn't have been such a daunting task. But, I was a bit nervous. But determined.

Determined not just because I was "challenged" to do it. But even more so because these verses are ones that I want to never forget. I want them to be unceasingly in my heart and on my lips.

And, I did it!

This is going to end up being a pretty long post, as I am going to write out each of these 23 verses (from memory, of course!). If you are a parent (even more specifically, a mother), I hope that as you read these verses from God's Word, you might be encouraged, enlightened, equipped. As I have been over these past months.

Okay, here goes.

Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.

2 Timothy 3:14
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

Psalm 85:8
I will hear what God the Lord will say. For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones. But let them not turn back to folly.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7
These words, which I am commanding you today, they shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.

1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Hebrew 21:11
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Philippians 2:14
Do all things without grumbling of complaining.

Psalm 147:10-11
He does not delight in the strength of a horse, he does not take pleasure in the legs of a man; the Lord favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His loving kindness.

Lamentations 3:37
It is good for a man to bear his yolk in his youth.

Ephesians 6:1-4
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother...so that it may be well with you, and so that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. But bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Matthew 5:37
But let your statement be "yes, yes" or "no, no"; anything beyond these is of evil.

Proverbs 13:24
He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

Proverbs 26:4
Do not answer a fool, according to his folly, or you will also be like him.

1 Samuel 12:23
Moreover as for me, far be it from me, that I should sin against the Lord, by ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you in the good and right way.

Ephesians 4:29
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according of the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive, through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. Love does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Acts 2:39
For the promise is for you and your children, and for all those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.

Proverbs 1:8-9
Hear, my sons, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head, and ornaments about your neck.

1 peter 3:8-9
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly and kind hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for that very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

Titus 2:3-5
Other women likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored.

Phew!

As I continue to remember these verses (and hopefully memorize more!), I hope that I also remember how each verse can directly apply to my role as a Mother who has been entrusted with 2 precious children.

A Long Way

Caleb has come a long way over the past months.

For example, he used to dislike sweets.

Remember his 1st birthday?
He wasn't a big fan of the cake.

Oh, and do you remember this post?
He loved helping me make the cookies, but didn't like eating them.

Ah yes, he has certainly come a long way in his love of sugar.
We made chocolate chip cookies yesterday.
He wanted to lick the beater and kept sneaking chocolate chips into his mouth.
(Okay, I guess it is not considered "sneaking" when I am standing right there and allowing him to do it!)





Another area in which our little boy has come a long way is this:

He used to wear diapers, you know, as all little ones do...



But, he has surely come a long way in his potty mannerisms, and now officially no longer needs diapers (except at night...we'll tackle that one later!) Wahoo!!!



Caleb, we are so very proud of you. You have worked so hard over these past few weeks to tackle this whole peeing and pooping on the potty thing! Great Job, Captain! This is definitely reason to celebrate....or at the very least, reason to stand on top of 2 upside down bins, sing into your microphone and dance!

Vows

On this day,
4 years ago,
we stood before God,
in front of 200+
family and friends,
and said these words:

{Both}
This day, before God and these friends, I receive you into my life, that together we may be one. I take you, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.

{Kris}
As Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her, so I give myself to you to be a loving, faithful and godly husband. I promise to provide for you, protect you and serve you, as God gives me grace and strength. I love you, and pledge my faithfulness to you. I am trusting God to help me keep these vows I make to you today.

{Meghan}
I give to you all that I am and have. I promise to love you, honor you, respect you, and esteem you above all others, submitting to your leadership in all things as unto Christ. I love you, and pledge my faithfulness to you. I am trusting God to help me keep these vows I make to you today.

Fore!

There is a mini-putt course about 5 minutes down the road, so we thought that would be a perfect place for us to spend some time yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and Kris had the day off. Nana and Papa were in town from Florida, and it was fun to have them along as well. Of course, Caleb loved it. We'll definitely be going back again!

He got to pick out his own ball...a red one!


He swings lefty...


...and righty!


This shot led to a hole-in-one!


Taking a break...or as he said "taking a deep breath."


M was there too!


Can you guess which score is Caleb's? ;)

Dedication

Meredith Grace -
Blessed by God's Grace

We had Meredith dedicated to the Lord this past Sunday at Harvest. This was our way of demonstrating a public commitment to raising her in the ways of the Lord. While we are imperfect parents, God is a perfect Father and our desire is to be parents who follow Him as we raise our children.




We have chosen Colossians 1:10 as Meredith's "life verse".

"...so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Our prayer for her is that she will grow up in the knowledge of God and that her life would bear fruit in a way that blesses others and, most importantly, brings glory and honor to her heavenly Father.

After the ceremony at church, we celebrated this special morning with family, including Nana and Papa who came all the way from Florida to be here!

M being cute...




Family...

predicament

pre·dic·a·ment

noun; an unpleasantly difficult, perplexing, or dangerous situation

Now that M is "on the move" (and by "on the move" I mean rolling and shimmy-ing herself around), she often gets herself into sticky situations.

Sometimes these situations are fairly uneventful, such as when she gets her legs stuck under furniture:


Sometimes these situations are pretty exciting for her, such as when she can grab hold of something that she shouldn't be grabbing hold of:


Other times, these situations are downright unpleasant, perplexing and dangerous...a real predicament...

...such as when she gets completely stuck under a chair:

(please don't judge me for taking these photos before helping her out!)

eight

Meredith is 8 months old today!

While she is still such a little peanut, she is definitely growing and learning so much.

She isn't crawling yet, but gets around by rolling as well as "scooting" herself, mostly backwards.

She has started "talking" a lot, and it is fun to hear her jabber. Over this past week, some new consonant sounds have developed, and it is neat to hear her sound like she is actually saying words!

Meredith has eaten a lot of "big girl" foods...pancakes, scrambled eggs, spaghetti, pieces of chicken, among other things. She LOVES bread...I am pretty sure I could feed her rolls for every meal and she would be ecstatic. She also really likes mandarin oranges. And of course, she is still somewhat addicted to Cheerios. =) Oh and this morning, while at Cosley Zoo, she had her first taste of dirt, with a side of leaf. Yum.

She has also started trying to figure out her toys and other objects by means other than just eating them. Often, when she is given a toy, she will start to shake it to see if it makes noise. It is so cute to see her focus intently on an object as she ponders its purpose. And, the other day, she was actually trying to brush her hair with her hairbrush! CUTE!

Here are a few photos I took at various moments throughout the morning...

Back into the Spring of Things

As the weather gets warmer, it is great to be able to get back into doing some of the fun things we spent time doing last Spring and Summer! This morning, we went to Cosley Zoo. This is a fun place to take the kids, and it is FREE! Love it!

It was so cool to see the peacock with his feathers up!


Helpful big brother...


Caleb and Jack probably could have run up and down this hill all day!


Tree Huggers...although, it kind of looks more like they are trying to pull the tree down...


These little lambs were born TODAY!


Click here for pictures from one of our Cosley visits last summer
or
click here for photos from our very 1st visit to Cosley, on Caleb's 1st birthday!

Together Again...

I toted my kiddos up to the Milwaukee area today to spend time with the Sipes family and Millen family. While my ride up there was not fantastic (due to a lovely encounter with a lovely cop who decided to give me a lovely speeding ticket) we had a great time at Family Fun Land and then at Brandy's house.

I love these friends, and am so thankful that we have remained so close over the years. I was telling Kris the other day that there is just something about "old friends" that is so special.....these girls have seen me at my worst, and still love me. It's great to be able to spend time with people who I am truly 100% comfortable with, and who love my kids...even when one of them decides to put some toys in their toilet.....=(

Thanks Bran, for hosting all of us today!!!

Lunchtime...


While it was hard to get any good pictures of the "big kids" since they were running, jumping, climbing, etc. all over the place, I did manage to snap a cute picture of Ozzy and Meredith.


On our way back to the cars....Caleb, Jensen, and Owen.


The girls...Meredith, Sydney, and Haley...


The big kids in the top bunk.....it made for a cute picture, even though they weren't supposed to be up there!!!


Please excuse my sweet son who decided to use all of his energy to resist cooperating with photo-taking efforts....I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since he was operating on ZERO naptime today.....