My Ebenezer

Yes, this is still Joanna Rowley's blog! :) I was getting a little tired of the old look and decided to give this one a try! What do you think? Noah and I went to the zoo this morning because it was such a beautiful day. I didn't take any pictures on purpose, because I just wanted to enjoy the time with Noah without having to pose him and get worked up. We rode the carousel and saw many of the animals in the hour and a half that we were there. In other news, poor Brianne has caught the same thing Noah had last weekend, but she doesn't seem to be getting better as fast. I felt terrible when Jen told me, but what can we do? As she said, "That's life, and these things are going to happen." So I guess the lessons in sharing are paying off, just not in the way we hoped! Share your toys , not your germs . :)

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who will think this is cute, but in my opinion, I could just eat this little boy up! A little background before I show you the video: 1. I'd never before heard Noah say the word, "chicken". 2. He was "helping" me make dinner. 3. This (pre-cooked chicken strips you just heat up in the oven) is our usual Wed night fare, since it's so easy and fast. 4. I had just cut open the bag and laid the chicken strips out on the cookie sheet when this happened. 5. I HAD to get it on video if for no other reason than to show Josh when he got home. 6. I dare you not to smile. :) One other thing: at the end of the video, the word that sounds like "Chit" is Noah's word for Squirrel. He calls every animal by what sound it makes, so a dog is an "arf arf", a tiger is a "RAWR", a cow is a "moo" and so on. A squirrel just happens to be a "chit." Thought I'd explain. He saw a squir

The 10 Pound Challenge is officially over! The ladies' exercise accountability group from church has decided to keep going for another 5 weeks, since so many of them loved it so much. I decided to bow out, since staying in requires another $5 investment. It was fun the first time, but I don't want to keep shelling out $5 every 5 weeks when I don't have a shot at winning! Here's how I did: Drumroll please..... I gained 2 pounds (cookies, anyone?) and lost 2.75 inches in 5 weeks' time. I'm telling myself those 2 pounds are muscle, as I did lose inches after all. You'd think if that was cookie weight I wouldn't have lost any inches, RIGHT? Somebody tell me I'm right. I do plan to keep exercising 5 days a week. I have to say I think it helps with my energy levels overall and my circulation. Though I have to have a pep talk with myself every morning when my alarm goes off at 6a.m. and remind myself of all the benefits so I don't snuggle dee

Since the response to my cookie recipe request of a few days ago was so overwhelming, I decided I should just go online and try some out for myself. :) I found this recipe for Oatmeal cookies and decided to give it a try. We love it! I asked Josh if they are as good as the Chewy Chocolate cookies, and he said they are a "close second". So they are VERY GOOD. Go ahead and give them a try! Oatmeal Raisin Crispies 1 C Shortening 1 C Packed Brown Sugar 1 C Sugar 2 Eggs, beaten 1 tsp Vanilla 1 1/2 C flour 1 tsp Salt 1 tsp Baking Soda 3 C Quick Oats 1 C Raisins (or more if you like them really raisin-y) In large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugars until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. In separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add to shortening mixture until well combined. Add oats and stir again until well mixed. Add raisins and stir again. Drop by tsps onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 mins or until golden brown.

I was going to blog yesterday, but it would probably have been depressing. Yesterday was a TERRIBLE day. Noah was not any better, and just so sick. He had a hard time eating, and kept begging to go to bed (!). Today, however, the Lord has begun to heal him. He woke up pretty much back to himself again! He has most of his energy back, and just has a runny nose and cough. I am so thankful to have my little boy back! This morning I took him to the park to get some fresh air and give him a chance to have some fun again.

Well, Noah is sick. Wednesday he woke up with a fever of 101.4 and it only got higher, until by evening it was 103.2. He acted fine all day; no real sickness shown, so I thought maybe he was teething. Saturday and today have been a different story. His fever is gone but he's left with a horrible cold. His nose has a constant drip, so I'm constantly wiping his "mess". He actually says, "A Mess!" when his nose runs. :) He's coughing, eyes are red, he's fussy, clingy, and just miserable. If you can, would you pray that Josh and I stay healthy? If I end up with what Noah has, I don't know what I'll do; I can't lay on the couch all day with an active little boy. But I'm not going to worry about that now. For now I'm going to pray that the Lord heals Noah quickly and keeps the rest of us healthy. I will say I am so thankful for our general good health. Noah is 19 months old and this is only the 2nd cold he's had in his li

Today Jen came over in the afternoon so we could make cards together. While I was sitting there trying to be inspired about the floundering card design I had in front of me, the Lord spoke to my heart about the whole dog scenario of the past week. It was as if He suddenly turned on the light and I saw an answered prayer bright as day, blinking at me in the brightness. I'd not seen it quite that way before... Earlier in the week, I had prayed specifically that the Lord would allow Josh and me to have complete agreement over the dog. That either Josh would decide that a dog was the last thing we needed, or that I would see that having a dog would add to our lives, AND that neither of us would come away with hard feelings or a struggle to maintain a good attitude. I prayed for complete agreement. (In the back of my mind I assumed that we would be keeping the dog, and that I would have a serious attitude adjustment ahead of me.) What a small view of God I had! Fast forward to th

If there was any doubt left in my mind about me not being a Dog Person, this week has erased all doubts. I'm just not. Let me back up... Josh has been wanting a dog for a Long Time. Especially since we had Noah, he thought a dog would be so much fun and has been talking about it off and on. Last weekend Mr. Bundy mentioned that there was a stray dog that had been frequenting their house, and that we could have him if we wanted him. He was a good dog, and a small one. Definitely a mutt, but it looked like a mix between Jack Russell Terrier and Beagle. Josh asked me what I thought, so I told him the following: I'm not a dog person. I'd be the one that would have to take care of the dog since Josh is gone all day long and Noah is so young. I'm not a dog person. It is a lot of work to have a dog. I'm not a dog person. Have I mentioned I'm not a dog person? :) You get the idea. Josh was so set on this opportunity to have a little dog, that we finally decided to compr

Ever since I posted this recipe, I have been looking for another cookie recipe that comes close to being as good. For a little variety, a couple weeks ago I made plain old chocolate chip cookies in between batches of the Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Long story short, I've ended up eating all the chocolate chip ones because Josh says they're sub-par when you compare them to the decadence of the others. Okay, so "decadence" is my own word~I don't think that word has ever come out of Josh's mouth. Too girly. ANYWAY! My point is that I need some GOOD cookie recipes. If you have one, would you mind emailing it to me or posting it in my comments section? I'm not picky; the worst that could happen is I make them and end up eating them all by myself. Now THAT would be a dirty job, but someone would have to do it! :)

What is it in the very DNA of little boys that compels them to find any and all puddles and stomp in them? 3 changes of pants/socks/shoes later, I am still befuddled. :)

If you've seen the movie Fireproof, you are familiar with the book The Love Dare , which is what the movie is based on. The reason this movie was such a perfect choice for us this year on Valentine's Day is that this was my gift to Josh. I did it. That is, I secretly read the book and did the daily challenges and journaled my way through until by the end I had a little diary full of what I'd learned throughout the 40 days. I gave this journal to Josh for his gift. Now before Melanie has a fit (she gave The Love Dare to Josh for Christmas, intending him to read it and do it for me), let me share the first page of my journal, which should explain all about why it was so right for me to do it: "Today I began The Love Dare. Melanie gave this book to Josh for Christmas, most likely intending it for him to read, do, and improve in his love for me (which I thought was a great idea! :)). But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my husband has very little time

We celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday, since that is the day Matt and Jen could watch Noah for us. I decided to keep it simple by making pizza and salad at home, and then we watched Fireproof. I had been excited to see Firproof ever since several of my friends told me how good it is. I was a little nervous that their glowing reviews would cheapen it or raise my expectations too high, but they didn't. It really is that good! For those who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil it. But we liked it, and had a great time celebrating our love for each other, which is only possible because God loved us first and shows us how to love. After the movie as we were drying our tears, I gave Josh my Valentine's gift. It was unspeakably worth every hour I put into it just to watch him open it. More on the gift in the next post. For now, I'm wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day!

Unable to stay indoors on such a lovely day, Noah and I headed to the park to play with the scooter today. If you've known me long, you may remember I bought this scooter for Josh on his 21st birthday (8 years ago!!). He rode it all around Bob Jones, and it got him to classes and~more importantly~lunch a lot quicker. He loved it! Now that Josh doesn't have much time for such things, Noah has sort of adopted the scooter as his own. It's hard to ride it in the house though, so I thought it would be fun to bring it to the park and ride a little. This was Noah's first introduction to the scooter at 9 months old. And here he is today; an old pro! I took a video of Noah on the scooter that (hopefully) will post successfully and be worth it. I haven't been able to watch the video yet, so I just hope it works. (It took an hour and a half to load onto the blog, so who knows?) At the end of the video, I ask Noah what his name is, and I HOPE you can hear his answer: "Yo

We went to the park on Saturday night to kick the ball around and throw the frisbee. Here's what we did in pictures: winding up to throw the frisbee HA! This one makes me chuckle. I think it's Noah's expression. Josh teaching Noah how to effectively throw the frisbee. Emphasis on the word effectively. pointing to a passing airplane contemplating his upcoming throw

The Truth Baptist Church ladies! (gotta love those self-shots!) Truth Baptist Church of Jacksonville has started its Ladies' Bible Study ministry! So far it's just Jen and me, but it was a blessing for the two of us "sisters" to get together and be challenged and encouraged. We sang "May The Mind Of Christ My Savior" (all the verses "a capella"!!), prayed, and were introduced to the study. Jen chose the book Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss as our first project. We are to do the first chapter this week, fill in the study guide, and memorize two verses: Gal 5:1, and Phil 4:8. We both are looking forward to what the Lord will do in our lives through this study!

As I mentioned previously, we had the 3 Hildebrand kids last night so their parents could have a much-deserved night to themselves. I've never had charge of 4 kids (mine included) at one time overnight before, and I was a little nervous how things would go. I shouldn't have been! I told Melissa this morning that I'd like to enroll in a Childrearing 101 class taught by her! All three of her kids were completely polite, compliant, and a joy to be around the entire time. "Yes, ma'am", "No ma'am" "Thank you. The food was really good." "Thank you for letting us stay here." Just really nice kids. They even entertained Noah for me all evening and this morning! I felt like I should be paying Melissa for her services! We just couldn't thank each other enough this morning. :) The boys playing on the computer, and Molly and Noah making Valentines. Noah actually allowed Molly to put this pink feathered tiara on his head! Charming,

February has been and will be a very "hospitable" month for us. :) This is good for me, as I both enjoy company and need to improve my graciousness skills. I know what I enjoy and what makes me feel comfortable when we go places, but somehow when it's my turn I always feel like I do the wrong thing or am missing something gigantically important to my guests. First, it was two guys from the BJU Concert Choir. They stayed with us one night the first week in February. A week later (last night) we had the Melegs come from Josh's old church in CT. They were passing through on their way to Disney. Tonight we have the Hildebrand kids from our church here. Their mom Melissa is my very dear friend, and she has babysat Noah for me on a couple occasions so Josh and I could have a date. Well tonight, she wanted a date with her husband, so I'm keeping her 3 kids overnight. I'm looking forward to spending time with them: Christopher (13), Clay (11), and Molly (9). Nex

Ask Noah what his name is, and he'll shyly say "Yo-ah". Go figure that he can say "NO!" with absolutely zero difficulty, but yet he calls himself Yoah, as if "Noah" is too hard. He certainly keeps me guessing!

We seem to have good days and bad days with potty training. Some days Noah will go every time I take him, others he doesn't go at all when I take him, and then proceeds to use his diaper right after I get it back on. :( M&Ms help motivate him sometimes, other times not. I could get better about taking him consistently, I know. I've just been taking him to the potty right before his nap and afterward, and before his bath and before bedtime. I don't think I'm quite ready for the time investment of taking him every half hour whether he needs it or not. Maybe that's what it takes? I'd love some helpful comments from you experienced Potty Trainers (especially moms of boys)!

It's FREEEEEZING here today! Seriously, the low 40's and 20's at night! So what do you do on a cold day? You don't go outside for very long. With this in mind, Noah and I headed out to the mall this morning to see if we could catch any good clearance sales (I love a good bargain!) and walk around INSIDE. We stopped at JCPenney and actually bought Josh a new pair of pajama pants for $6! And I got myself 9 pairs of earrings for $16 at Claire's. I was pretty excited. And since Noah was such a good boy and let me shop while he sat in his stroller, I rewarded him with something I would normally never do... I let him ride twice on the insert-quarter-ride-a-horsey type thing. You know them, they used to have them outside of grocery stores and you used to beg your mom to let you ride it. Only now they're not just little yellow horses anymore; they're spaceships and cars and hot dog trucks.....Hot Dog Trucks? Yes, that's what I said! And now, they're not jus

**If you are a male reading this, it may be full of female words that you're squeamish about hearing or reading. Consider yourself warned.** Josh and I went in today for an appointment with the infertility doctor who did our IVF over two years ago (anyone else having a hard time believing it's been that long?). We wanted to see what he would recommend as far as our next step: should we wait longer, have another laparoscopy (surgery to remove endometriosis), start IVF right away, go on hormone treatment for endo suppression... you get the idea. Dr. W. talked with us for a while and then decided to do an impromptu ultrasound to see what condition my ovaries are in. Note to self: Always Be Prepared For The Possibility Of Having To Undress At The Doctor's Office (I had some anxiety about my dorky socks, which I didn't quite know what to do with. Take them off? Leave them on? Roll them down? It was a very awkward and vulnerable moment. *Shudders*) ANYWAY, there was

Thank you, Mom Rowley for sending my camera charger to me after I left it in CT over Christmas!! I am so happy to be able to pull these pics off the camera and take new ones again! We have tried finger painting again with much better results than the last time. Here's how it went when I introduced Noah to finger painting back in the Fall: Blow this picture up; his expression can't be beat! He did NOT like it! And now here he is after leaving it be for a few months: Is that a smile? Working on a masterpiece And the moral of the story is: (say it with me, now!) "If at first you don't succeed...try the finger paints later!" :)

Josh and I took our turn for a date night yesterday! We left Noah with Matt and Jen and made our way to Chili's Restaurant for dinner. Mine was fabulous! I had some sort of chicken tacos with guacamole, black beans, and rice. Yummy! Josh had his signature meal: a hamburger! :) Some things don't change. After that we went to Barnes & Noble to walk around and browse. If you have ever tried to do this with an ACTIVE 18-month-old, you know what a treat it was to do without him. Then, since we still had cake and ice cream left over from the party, we came back home for dessert before picking Noah up. It was a good night. We didn't get a whole lot of deep discussion in, but in this case it was nice to just spend quiet time with Josh. Enjoying each other's company and being able to focus just on each other was a nice break from real life. I think we've started a good thing, trading date nights. I know it is good for us as married couples to take a break from child car