Jesus is King

Last night, Robby and I sat watching the election results until it was projected that President Obama would be re-elected.  While I had been praying for this election and knew that whoever won would do so only because God allowed, I was discouraged and disappointed.  Once the announcement was made, we didn't waste any time heading off to bed.  

This morning as I came down for my coffee and quiet time, I felt a heaviness and dread about what's going to  happen to our country over the next four years.  I pulled out my devotional book (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) and turned to November 7.  This is part of what I read (written as if Jesus is speaking):

Your sense of security must not rest in your possessions

or in things going your way.  I am training you to depend 

on Me alone, finding fulfillment in My Presence.

One of the passages that was mentioned with today's devotion is Psalm 27:4-5, which says, 

One thing I ask from the Lord,

    this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

    and to seek Him in his temple.

⁵ 

For in the day of trouble

He will keep me safe in His dwelling;

He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent

    and set me high upon a rock.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the reminder that You are King, no matter what.  My security is in You, not in any man.  I will seek You and be comforted in your Presence.

I will pray for our country and for our President.  But I will keep my eyes fixed on things above and the eternal hope I have in Jesus--my Savior and Lord!

Five Years Old!

This week we've had a celebration at our house.  My big girl turned FIVE years old on Wednesday!  I'm still in shock, I think! :-)  I cannot believe I have a five-year-old.  Turning five brings changes, some of which we've already experienced--like teeth falling out.  But we also start kindergarten this year.  Wow!  

All that to say, it's been a party all week.  We like to make the celebration thing linger, so we started last weekend with a small birthday party.  We haven't had a real party for her since she turned one, so this was a big deal for Emma.  We told her she could invite just a few people, and she chose the guest list.  We also let her pick the theme, and she picked princess, of course!  It wasn't necessarily Disney, just royal in theme.  Robby and I even joined in and dressed appropriately as the King and Queen. :-)  (We tell our children often that we are the King and Queen, and they better not forget it!  haha!)

My wonderful sister helped make the castle cake, and we partied in royal fashion.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

 She did a good job, yes?!

 The Royal Family

That little one usually fills the role of court jester, 
but we let her be a princess for the day! :-)

 My beautiful birthday girl!

 My other pretty princess!

Just a couple of her cool presents!

Emma's celebration week continued when her Grandmama picked her up from school on Tuesday.  She took Emma shopping and let her pick out her birthday gift.  Then she and Papa took Emma out to supper, and she got to spend the night with them--on a school night! :-)  

On Wednesday, I was able to take treats to Emma's class during snack time, and we all sang Happy Birthday.  She got to blow out candles again, and you would have thought it was the greatest birthday ever.  

We wrapped it up with supper at her favorite pizza place before church on Wednesday.  I think she had a pretty great fifth birthday.  How thankful I am for my sweet girl!  I'm looking forward to what this year holds. 

The Tooth Fairy is Coming... Again!

OK, so as parents we always think our children are growing up too quickly. But this time, it's true! Emma is two weeks shy of her fifth birthday and just lost her second tooth. How is this possible?! :-)

Last time she wiggled it out by accident but this time it was a much slower process. The accidental pulling made her shy away from messing with it, so it's just been hang out--literally sideways--for weeks. About to drive me nuts, actually. She would only eat out of the side of her mouth and end up with food smeared on her cheek half way to her ear.

I was so fed up with the tooth that last night I told her I would tell the tooth fairy to bring her $10 if she would pull it right then. No deal. $20 if she would let me pull it right then. Again, no deal.

Tonight her daddy got a hold of her. He was very patient and gentle, and it FINALLY came out!!

But then I looked at my sweet baby girl with one big tooth half way in and a second baby tooth missing, and I wanted to put it back in her mouth.

I just hope we get a break from the loose teeth for a while. She doesn't need to lose any more before she starts kindergarten this fall! :-)

Here's my girl with her tooth under her pillow, ready for the tooth fairy's visit. 

A New Year!

How in the world did it get to be 2012?!  Last year was probably the fastest year of my life.  And I'm afraid they're only going to get faster!

I'm not usually one to make New Year's resolutions, but this year I've had some things on my mind, and I decided to make a few.  I figure if I put them here, I'll have a little more accountability than if I just make a mental list and file it away in my brain that is still suffering the after effects of "baby brain" (three times over!).  So, in no particular order, here they are:

1. Exercise more.  I got a bike and double trailer for Christmas, so I'm planning for this to be my main exercise outlet.
2. Blog more, but spend less time online overall. Can you say, "Pinterest addiction?"
3. Sew more. This is one area that has been greatly neglected since I became a mother of three!
4. Pray more.  If you haven't read The Yada Yada Prayer Group series, you should.  It's fiction, but will challenge your prayer life!
5. Memorize more scripture.  I want to know God's word so deeply that it is automatically the first thing that comes to mind or comes out of my mouth in every situation, whether good or bad, happy or sad.

So far, I'm doing OK.  I haven't touched my sewing machine yet, but I did take my children on a bike ride.  I was surprised how easy it was to pull Abby and Will.  I figured I would pass out about 4 houses down from ours, but we made it to the end of the road and back, no problem!  And it was a blast.  I can't wait to ride it a lot more!!  

I haven't memorized a new scripture yet, but I have spent a lot more time reading the Word, especially Psalm and Isaiah.  If you need help memorizing scripture and you have children, teach it to them and you will learn it too.  Before Thanksgiving, I taught Emma Psalm 100.  We worked on it when we were in the car, mostly on our way to drop her off at school (literally only a 5 minute ride).  One line at a time, and after a few weeks, she could say the whole thing.  Still can.  And I can too.  It was the best way I've found to learn verses.  So she and I will be learning a lot more in the year to come!

If you've made resolutions this year, I hope you will find a way to keep yourself accountable.  I hope I will too!  I feel like I always have the best of intentions and then fail to follow through so often--not just with resolutions, but with things in every area of my life.  

Happy New Year!

Girls Like Dirt, Too!

There are a few women in my life (mothers of only boys) who have told me that my job as a mother is easy because I only have girls. Of course, this was before Will was born, and once they found out I was having a boy, it was a bunch of "You just wait!" comments.

Obviously, they have no idea what they're talking about. I could go on because I was actually a little insulted by those comments, but that's not the point of this post.

While my girls do have their moments of sitting quietly to read or color, they also enjoy (and prefer) running and playing and being loud. They went outside to play this afternoon and this is where and how I found them... Filthy dirty and happy to be that way!

Can you imagine what color their bath water is going to be tonight?!

Field Trip Time!

Well, once again, I've been away for a while.  But it's time for me to get back at this blogging thing.  I want to have more time for it and I'm hoping that will happen now that I have the Blogger app on my phone.  I will be able to post on the go.  The posts may be short and sweet with maybe a picture or two, but I think it should help me stay more caught up.  

Anyway, yesterday was a fun day.  Emma had her first field trip for the year and got to ride on a school bus for the first time.  It was quite an event for her.  She told me later that she was a little nervous when they first got on the bus, but she chose to ride the bus back to the school after the field trip instead of riding back to the school with me. So I guess she liked it.

Getting off the bus for the first time

This field trip was to a pumpkin patch put on by a church in town.  The children enjoyed making a craft, having snack, having several stories read to them, and riding on a hay ride.  The last activity was choosing a pumpkin and you would have thought it was the most special prize in all the world!  

I really enjoyed spending time with her class and putting faces with the names of all her little friends.  I also had to scope out the little boys in her class.  Emma seems to be quite popular with a few of the boys and has already had to fend off a couple of kisses!  I needed to know which little boys needed the stink eye from this mama.  haha!  

I am so thankful that I am able to attend her field trips.  She has quite of few this year and I'm looking forward to all the fun things we'll do together!

The Garden

So the last few years, I've tried my hand at gardening.  With not very good results.  

I think my gardening motto should be "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."  Because that's all I've been doing... trying again.  Two years ago was my first attempt.  The only success was a huge harvest of jalapenos (thanks to a very wet summer).  The mocking birds ate every tomato that turned the slightest shade of orange, the squash and zucchini rotted because of all the rain, and the eggplant were TERRIBLE.  Don't know what happened there, but they were just down right spit-them-out-of-your-mouth terrible!

Last year was the first summer in our new house, and we weren't sure where we wanted the garden yet, so I just stuck a few plants in the ground in a small space next to our fireplace.  The cucumbers grew but mostly they were too bitter to eat.  The watermelon didn't really do anything, and I can't remember what else we planted--that's how spectacular it was...

This year, we were on the ball.  Robby got some good dirt (since the builder filled our yard with sand) and created me a place to have a garden.  We got a rain barrel and put it in the garden so we could economically water our little plants.  I planted lettuce, basil, parsley, oregano, squash, broccoli, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, and a potato.  The potato was one that had sprouted in the pantry, so it was an experiment and I didn't put too much stock in it.  The rest were seeds or little plants.  

My only harvests this summer were some lettuce and basil.  I found out after I planted that broccoli is a cool weather plant and I should plant it this fall.  Why, oh why, does Lowes sell broccoli in the spring if it's too stinkin' hot down here to grow it??  Anyway, this is what happens when broccoli gets too hot:

The head stops getting bigger and all those little pods that we eat 

bloom into yellow flowers

The rest just fell apart.  Everything did great through the spring.  It was raining, but not too much, and the plants were growing.  Then came June and our 100+ degree weather and not much rain.  That was also the time I was 8.5 months pregnant and didn't spend much time outside.  Better luck next year, I guess!  

What I didn't know was that a surprise was in store for me.  Remember that watermelon I planted last year that didn't do anything?  Well, it came back.  All on it's own.  And it is FLOURISHING!  I have always loved watermelon, but I have been especially obsessed with it this summer.   

There were 7 melons on the vine, but I wasn't sure when to pick them.  They're personal size watermelons, so I didn't know how big they should be.  The biggest one quit getting bigger about a week ago, so today I picked my first melon.  I stuck it in the fridge and crossed my fingers--remember the cucumber?  A few hours later, it was time to cut it.

It tasted amazing!  Sweet all the way to the rind.  Needless to say, it didn't last long.  Between the girls and me, we had it finished off pretty quickly!  

So, if nothing else, at least I got a little watermelon this year.  I'll keep trying and tweaking things until I figure this out.  Hopefully one day I'll have a beautiful garden that yields lots of fruits and veggies.

Big Sister

Abby asked to feed Will this morning. She's doing pretty well, but has to be reminded to hold the bottle up and to leave it in his mouth. And not poke him in the eyes. And not crank his arms backwards. All the time being sweet, but also being 2!

One thing's for sure... Both of my girls love being a big sister! And for that, I am extremely thankful!!