My Ebenezer

I'm going to be objective here, I really am. I have a tendency to make things bigger than they really are (at least in my mind), but I'm just going to tell you exactly what happened yesterday. No frills, just the facts. This is one for the Hall of Fame to be sure! 1. We arrived at Jacksonville airport on time. 2. We got waylaid in security, where the lady searched my carry-on and Noah's diaper bag and threw away my toothpaste, facewash, and lotion. She also tested Noah's water in his sippy cup with a piece of litmus paper. 3. This delay caused us to arrive at the gate as they were already in the process of boarding the passengers, so we missed being able to board in the early "Small Children" category. 4. When we got to our seats, there was an 86-year-old (very nice) woman sitting in the aisle seat and we had to literally throw our stuff over to our seats and climb over her, since she could not get out of the seat without assistance. That was interest

We're all packed. Garbage has been taken out. Refrigerator cleaned. The only thing left to do is go to bed! :) Our flight leaves at 10:40am tomorrow morning, and we're praying for good weather. It seems it's been rather nasty up in New England lately! Matt and Jen arrived this evening about 8:30. Josh is over there as I type this helping them move in (along with 2 other guys). It was so good to see them!! I'm excited to have them here in Jacksonville, and looking forward to what God has in store for us all. The other noteworthy event of the day (and by no means related to the other two events): NOAH WENT STINKY ON THE POTTY!!! Can I get an "Amen"? :) Without getting into the nitty gritty details, let's just say I was one proud mama this morning! I in no way consider this success to mean that potty training will be a snap. In fact, after that one brief shining moment, Noah proceeded to go twice more in his diaper throughout the rest of the day.

What if Jesus had not come? This was the question our church Christmas Cantata posed last night. It was really good and thought-provoking too. Do I live my Christian life as if He hadn't come? If I'm not actively sharing my faith, then yes I am. I'm ignoring the fact that Christ came to this earth and died for our sins by not sharing this with other people. What a thought! Yikes. What a reminder that people need the Lord. Dr. Bob used to say "The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today." Living life in light of that fact really changes priorities around, doesn't it? After the Cantata the church had a goodbye party for the Bennetts. I still can't quite grasp that they are leaving, but Wednesday morning will likely be the last time I see them for a long time. They're taking us to the airport Wed morning, so we'll have that last opportunity to really say goodbye. Between now and Wednesday I have a lo

I have officially lost count of how many words Noah can say, since he is into repeating many of the words in our conversations, and it has now become impossible to keep tabs on what he can repeat. We've heard him say tomato, uncle, vehicle (no kidding!), nut, half, and other random words that he feels like giving a try. If you ask him, "Are you a nut?" He'll answer with no hesitation, "Nut!" It's quite humorous. Hands down though, the funniest word in my opinion is his word for Stinky. Are you ready? It's "Geeky". Sometimes I have to ask Noah if he's Stinky (as in, "do I need to change your diaper?"), and he pipes up with "Geeky!" Occasionally he'll even pinch his nose as he says it. Priceless, I tell you! We're beginning to work on the idea of potty training. He knows when he's geeky (see? Doesn't it make you smile?), and he knows when he's going pee-pee (did I just type that?). Now the big battl

How do you say goodbye to a good friend? It's hard, and something I've done a lot of in my life. Have I ever mentioned I've moved about 15 times? Honestly I've lost count! This time, I'm not the one moving though. My dear friend Carrie Bennett and her family are moving to West Virginia in a few weeks (Dec 30th to be exact) to start deputation to be missionaries to New Zealand. And we're leaving for CT on the 17th, so we won't even be here to see them off. Carrie and I joke about being in denial that they're even leaving; it just doesn't seem real yet. Instead of sitting around and being sad, we decided to go to the zoo on Tuesday to have some fun together and visit! First, I must say that the Lord gave us a beautiful day! We had temperatures in the 70's, a nice breeze, and sunshine for most of it. Plus we were almost the only people there, which made it much more fun. We were able to let our kids run around some instead of being confine

Last night we attended the Christmas party for our age group at church. We had such a good time, made better by the fact that Mr. Bundy watched Noah for us at his house, giving us the opportunity to actually talk to the other people. The pictures today are courtesy of Carrie again, who has taken pity on my camera-less state. :) Thanks, Carrie! We played 2 Christmas trivia games, and I won the Christmas Movies one! I don't know if I should be proud of that or not, but I was happy to win a little prize anyway. Everyone brought appetizers for the party and a batch of their favorite cookies/bars to exchange at the end, and we all had fun talking and eating. It was bittersweet for me, knowing that it was the last party with my friend Carrie (she's going to be a missionary and leaves this month on deputation), and maybe with the others as well (Matt and Jen's house is under contract and supposed to close this month, which puts somewhat of a deadline on our time at Victory).

Over the past several weeks I have been working on what I call Mothering On Purpose. The default mode of parenting (at least for me) is to be lazy; not only in discipline, but even in daily activities and teaching opportunities. My biggest temptation is to go check my email and facebook accounts when I could be playing with Noah, or to sit silently when I could be instructing him about something. I am not a talkative person, easily coming up with clever conversations or filling the void with words. I much prefer thinking to talking. But with Noah, who has so much to learn, I may actually be doing him a disservice by keeping my mouth shut. For example, when I am doing the laundry and he's watching, I would rather just shove the clothes in the dryer, throw in a sheet of fabric softener, push the button, and be on my way! Then I realize that a little person is watching me intently and probably wondering what I'm doing. So recently I've taken to narrating my tasks so hopefully

Maybe you've noticed that my blog has been painfully devoid of photos lately. This is because my dear husband has confiscated "my" (actually it's his) camera for good. He says I messed with a setting, and that messed him up on his jobsite the other day, so I'm banned from the camera. BUT!! A little bird told me I might be receiving a brand new camera for Christmas. If the rumors are true, the photos should begin to increase and become better in quality before too long. And between now and then I might be able to convince Mr. Camera Nazi to let me borrow his camera now and then. But don't count on it! :)

You know no one likes a tattletale, but how about when the guilty party IS the tattletale? For the past week or so, when Noah misbehaves he comes to me with whatever he wasn't supposed to touch (lately the balls on the Christmas tree) in his hand and saying very seriously "NOooooo". It sounds uncannily (is that a word?) like myself when I'm reprimanding him. Down to the vocal inflection. Eerie. But anyway, my POINT is, when is he going to figure out that tattling on himself still gets him in trouble? I'm not going to be the one to tell him! :)