My Ebenezer

Patch the Pirate is a favorite around our house. I play many of those cd's for Noah during his playpen time in the mornings, and he's even starting to request the songs when we sing with him at bedtime. His favorites are "Jonah" and "Obedience" (HA! That is beyond ironic that this is one of his favorites!). Anyway, today I was upstairs compiling our Library List for today while Noah was in his playpen, when I heard him singing along with "I Love You, Lord" which was playing at the time. His little "I wuv wu, Wurd" was sooo sweet to hear. I love the sound of a child singing!

Just to jot down a few of the memorable things from this weekend: My potty-training effort with Noah flopped royally. He still is not trained, and doesn't tell me when he has to go. He'll go if I take him and that's about it. BUT I'm not going to give up yet, so we continue... Josh and I had a date night on Saturday, once again made possible by Matt and Jen, who took care of Noah. Josh and I went to O'Charley's and had a nice meal, though I must admit I ruined the first part of the evening with a bad attitude. :( Confession: I am a very time/clock/schedule-oriented person, and I have a hard time understanding those who are not. :) Josh had gone out to spend the afternoon with a friend, and we misunderstood each other about what time he would be back. In my narrow-minded opinion, he was Way Late, and I threw a very nice pity party about that for a while. (These are the true colors of Joanna coming out. The Lord is working on this, but I'm pretty hard-headed a

Last night and tonight we have had a small respite from the rain that makes us think we might be at the end of this rainy spell. But. Just when we think it's done out there, it starts up again. I hear it raining as I type this. Today makes the 6th day in a row of almost nonstop rain, which is unheard of for this part of the country! Anyway, this isn't the weather channel, so I'm sure you want something better than a weather update! :) Josh took a video of Noah playing in the backyard last evening and taking full advantage of the fact that all his toys were full of water. Poor guy hasn't been outside much at all over the last week. Potty-training went better today. Except for one episode of Stinky In the Big Boy Pants (DOUBLE YUCK!!!), Noah has been dry and accident-free all day! Of course, he still hasn't told me when he has to go. Every so often I just decide it's potty time and we go. Hopefully soon we can get Noah to make the connection himself. Preferably be

Since it has been raining almost non-stop with no glimpses of sun for about 5 days now (and no promise of stopping any time soon), I decided to finish the week off with an intensive potty-training session for Noah. I've heard that it is possible to potty-train a toddler in 3 days, and that is my goal. We've been on a plateau for months now, stranded in the If-I-Take-Him-Every-45-Minutes-He'll-Go-But-Still-Won't-Tell-Me-He-Has-To-Go Stage. I'm ready to move on to the Done-With-Diapers-For-Good Stage as quickly as possible! Not knowing exactly what I'm doing has made this project somewhat daunting, and leaves me praying I'm doing the right things to help Noah. This morning I put Big Boy Underpants on Noah and made this big production out of it, and how much fun it would be to keep them clean and dry. Next, I gave him his own piece of cantaloupe, as much to drink as he wanted, PLUS some of my tea as a bonus. We set the timer for 30 minutes, and began. So far in

I don't know about where you are, but here in Jacksonville, it has been raining for two days. Straight. This is unusual for sunny Florida; if it's going to rain it'll do it quickly and powerfully, but it'll be over within an hour and the sun returns. Not today, or yesterday either for that matter. Solid. Rain. Ironically enough, these were the same 2 days that Josh had scheduled to re-roof our house! The guys worked all day in the rain yesterday, and for a few hours this morning, but we decided to call it quits until the sun comes out again. I can only imagine (since I was not actually on the roof) that it was M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E to say the least. So the house on Cellar Cir is in the process of getting a new roof! We are also planning and beginning electrical wiring for ceiling fans, lights, and outlets. After the electrical work is done, I believe we move on to plumbing. I've spent a few hours over there ripping wallpaper out of the main hall bathroom (that stuff was

One thing that has surprised and relieved me about our new kitty Tux is that he is the most patient cat I have ever met. Cats tend to have one of two reactions to little kids: 1. Run and Hide 2. Bite and Scratch Not Tux, though! This cat lets Noah pick it up and carry it--"bounce" would be more accurate-- anywhere Noah wants....AND PURRS WHILE IT HAPPENS!!! I don't know if the difference is that we had Noah first and then got a kitten who didn't know any better, but whatever it is, we LIKE it! Look at the pictures above and tell me honestly: Have YOU ever met a cat who would allow this?

The Lord has been working in my heart over the last couple of weeks since we found out our IUI didn't work. I cannot describe in words the kind of peace that has filled my soul, except that it is exactly as it says in Philippians 4:6-7, 11: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus... Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." It is just like that! It is a peace which passes all comprehension, all logic, all human understanding. This is the first time in the more than 4 years of dealing with infertility that I have had such peace, and I can only say that it most definitely is NOT coming from me. Left to myself, I am a noisy soul who wants nothing more than my own wishes granted, and pouts when I do not get my way. This peace (I

In last week's chapter of Lies Women Believe, which Jen and I have been working through, the subject was Our Circumstances. The fact is that many people believe that their circumstances make them what they are, when in reality their circumstances only reveal what they are. I am at times one of those people! Jim Berg, one of my favorite professors at Bob Jones, had a famous Tea Bag Analogy that illustrates it perfectly. Think of tea as your heart and hot water as life's circumstances and trials. Tea tastes the way it does because of what's in the tea bag. The hot water only reveals what is in the tea bag. You can't blame the hot water for making the tea taste bitter; that's the tea's fault. If you are continually spouting anger, or displaying bitterness or envy, or if you throw pity parties for yourself (this is a big one for me), it is only revealing your sinful heart, NOT whatever circumstance you are blaming. Good stuff, huh?

Noah is my little "hot-box" as I call him. He is usually hot, even in winter. These days, with daytime temps in the 90's, he just drips sweat when he's outside and his face turns beet red. Last night we had been to the park for a walk and when we got home, I suggested to Josh that we let Noah run through the sprinkler for a while and accomplish two things at once: Water the grass and cool off our boy. :)

I am so thankful for my mom today, who reared me with God's help at an older age than most mothers. Mom, I don't know how you found the energy to go to work and take care of me, except that the Lord must have given you grace! I'm finding more and more that being a mom is a difficult job in the sense of the daily-ness of it. There is no "spring break" or "half-days" like they used to give us in school. And no sick days either! My mom never complained, though. Thank you for all your love! And Mom Rowley, you have been a blessing too! Thank you for all the love you've shown to us; for advice you've given and your prayers. There are all those "mother-in-law" jokes out there, and people who don't get along with their mothers-in-law, but you're not that way. :) I've thanked the Lord over and over for giving Josh parents like you. This Mothers' Day, I am again celebrating cautiously. There is a large part of me that still

Almost all of last week was spent preparing to have a yard sale. I've never had one before, and I had no idea how much planning and organizing goes into it before you can haul your merchandise out to the driveway to sell. Matt and Jen had some things to sell too, so Jen spent a significant amount of time helping me sort, clean, label, and display the growing piles of stuff. We held our sale yesterday from 8am to about 12:30pm. Minus a couple early-birds who showed up at 7:40am (what part of "8am-Noon" don't you people understand?) the sale went well and was enjoyable. I am SO thankful for Jen who helped me hold down the fort while the sale was going on, and for my neighbor, Ashley who VOLUNTEERED to watch Noah for me during the yard sale so he wouldn't have to watch his toys being sold out from under him. :) Turns out his toys didn't really sell that well anyway, but I was still thankful that he was being entertained and I didn't have to keep him from

I had a few minutes so I thought I'd share the Before Pics of our new house. They won't be impressive, but hopefully at the end of the rehab when I can show the After Pics, you'll be able to see where we came from. We've already done most of the demo, so I should go over and take pictures of that, but for now these are what the house looked like when we closed on it. This week hopefully the power will be turned on and we can really get going. First order of business will be the roof. Josh and Noah on the backhoe in the backyard. The patio room. Not sure if we want to turn this into a 3-season sunroom or keep it as part of the heated and cooled area. The entryway looking from the front door in to the house. The living room is to the immediate left, and the dining room is beyond that to the left. The bedrooms are down the hall to the right. The master bedroom. Tile is not our first choice for a bedroom, but it's pretty tile and we don't want to rip it all up, so

Tonight we said goodbye to a dear friend and Josh's best rehab worker. Joe Bundy and his wife are moving to Tennessee to be closer to family, and tonight was their last time at church. Noah will especially miss Mr. Bundy, aka "The Candy Man". Mr. Bundy keeps candy in his pockets at all times, and Noah had gotten to the point where he'd say, "Bundy Candy!" Since we don't have our parents living here in town with us, the Bundys have become sort of surrogate grandparents to Noah and we will really miss them! I don't think it has all sunk in that they're leaving yet. Goodbye, Bundys!

Our poor kitty has tried on so many names this week, and I think we're finally ready to commit to Tux. I just can't ignore that he looks to me like he has a little tuxedo on, and that darling bowtie marking on his lip seals it. Tux, it is!