My Ebenezer

Happy Birthday, Josh! You don't look a day over 31. :)

These days... God is reminding me that He is always in control. I suffered a particularly huge disappointment this week with regard to infertility. First one in over a year that was this bad. But God is faithful, and I know He loves me. Josh and I are praying for 2 houses in particular to sell, so that we can move forward. I have been reading Sense and Sensibility and loving it! This is the first fiction book I have picked up in quite a while. The story is terrific, and I must admit, the vocabulary is stretching me. "Insipidity," anyone? The next book on my list is a biography of Amy Carmichael. I was already planning to read it, but was cemented in my plan when I read the following Amy Carmichael quote on a friend's FB wall: "If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted." Wow. Chew on that one

needing these words today.... "The King of Love my Shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never I nothing lack if I am His And He is mine forever. And so through all the length of days Thy goodness faileth never Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise Within Thy house forever." --Henry W. Baker

Hands-down I think one of the most delicious sounds in all the world is the sound of children's laughter. Noah's is particularly infectious to me, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm his mother. Not. Brianne and Titus were over last night, and they brought an Ice Age movie with them. The squirrel/nut sequences were enough to send both Brianne and Noah into fits of giggling hysteria. I just wish these pictures had sound!!

Remind me not to buy strawberries in January, no matter how tempting the price. They went down to $2.99/lb (which is a great middle-of-winter price!) and I bought some, itching for my first taste of spring... I'm still itching for my first taste of spring. I honestly think someone put red food coloring on these and passed them off as strawberries. Anyway... Can you believe we're on S week already? Verse for the week: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt 6:33

If some baking endeavor or other project didn't turn out quite right, my mom always used to say, "I didn't hold my mouth right." I daresay Noah understands her perfectly.

Finally!! That's all I can think to say, because I have been trying to load this video since Sunday, to no avail, and finally it loaded! I have a love/hate relationship with computers. Josh and I are planning to sing (Lord-willing) in church on Sunday. The song we're singing is called, "Abba, Father" which Noah also knows because it is on one of his Patch the Pirate cds. He sang it for me at the breakfast table this past week, only he sang it as "Papa, father" instead. Well, then I just had to get that on video. As he grows up, I regret that I didn't take more videos of him when he was really little. All the language foibles that make childhood so very cute are even better when you can capture them on video. :)

Are you keeping your New Year's resolutions? I'm just checking, because ever since Christmas I have felt like my life was out of control--the total opposite of all my goals at the start of a new year. I have quit exercising, have eaten almost nothing but junk (chocolate is my new #1 food group), have fallen off the organizational wagon with regard to using my time well and teaching Noah his letters/verses, and have begun losing things regularly; my keys, checks (the kind that represent money!), my coupon holder, my grocery list (have YOU ever tried to do a two-week's worth grocery shopping trip with a 3-year-old and NO LIST??)... What's more, I'm exhausted all the time and can't seem to shake it. I began taking iron every day and am waiting for that to help, but so far it hasn't. I'm sure if I could stop all the chocolate from leaping into my mouth, and start getting up to exercise again (at 6am in the dark freezing cold house...I'm just saying),

Saturdays are great for catching up on family time. I love watching Noah and Josh interact and spend time together. Josh exposes Noah to much more boy-appropriate activities than I would be capable of or interested in. Chainsawing logs, fixing things, shooting a bb gun...Josh even sword-fights better than I can. ;) Today we went to the park, and my men had a good old-fashioned sword fight. This evening we are just hanging out at the house together as a family. I love it!

After a big rainstorm, there is always a big puddle (read: pond) at the end of our driveway. It's a design flaw, really, that causes water to pool there and not drain. It's on "the list" of things we would like to fix if we ever get the time. I think last I checked, it's #58 on that list. Yeah, never going to happen. Ask Noah if he cares. :) Actually, he's probably hoping we NEVER get to #58. And who can blame him?

Noah has been begging me to make a gingerbread house ever since New Year's Eve, when he watched part of a gingerbread-house-building contest at TBC's fellowship. I looked at Target to see if they had any of the kits on clearance, but couldn't even find anything remotely Christmas-y on clearance there. Then I looked up a recipe online to see if I could make one from scratch. The recipe I found said it took 2-3 DAYS to complete. Well that's just nuts. So I prepared Noah for the fact that we may have to wait until next year to make one, and we went on about life. BUT!! At CVS the other night, I happened to look down at their Christmas clearance and saw one! Marked down to $2.91!! Monday we put it together. I have decided that gingerbread houses are much nicer to look at than they are to eat. I think the kit companies add cardboard flakes to the dough to make it durable, I really do. Oh well! Maybe if I made one from scratch it would be tastier. 'Course, then

Really fast book review: Last night I finished up The Heart of Anger, by Lou Priolo. I must say, I began reading it because I thought Noah was having issues with anger and I wanted to help him out. But in my reading, I discovered that it is likely I who is the angry one. This was such a helpful book for me! It helped me see so many areas where I need the Lord's help. The second part of the book was helpful for me with Noah, because Noah can be a master at manipulation. There were many helpful insights about manipulation that I am tucking away in my mind. I intend to reread The Heart of Anger when Noah is about 7 years old, because many of the tips are for children who are a little older (but still a beneficial book for any age). Chapter 2 was titled, Provocative Parents, and listed 25 Ways that Parents Provoke Their Children To Anger. I personally was guilty of, oh, about 13 of them!! (Yikes!) I think the most serious one that I know we have a problem with was "Establ

On Christmas Day about 6:30pm, Josh received a phone call that one of his apartments was on fire! We were in the middle of having company over, but Josh had to leave to go inspect the damage. It turns out, a tenant had left a burning cigarette on the couch, and the apartment caught fire. THANKFULLY no one was injured in the fire, but the apartment itself is going to need a LOT of work to restore it. Permits, inspections, work, and more money are going to be the story of this building for a while. Here are a couple before and after pics: The kitchen before the fire: And after. Surprisingly, all that damage you see was smoke damage. The fire itself stayed out of the kitchen! Smoke and water damage can be pretty bad... The living room window before: After. This was where the fire began, so the damage here is the worst. We had several things go wrong around Christmas time (though this was probably the worst), causing us to reflect on what the Lord might be trying to teach us. W

I'm always on the lookout for good wholesome movies and videos that I can let Noah watch. Thirty minutes of a good show can be a lifesaver for me at a crucial time when I'm trying to get supper on the table, or working on something that I just need to think about by myself. Noah, like most children, is a veritable sponge and will pick up anything he hears. I constantly have to guard my mouth to make sure that I have no problem if he repeats what I'm saying. I also have to guard what everyone on videos is saying, or else he will pick it right up. Why is it that he manages to remember the bad things? Several weeks ago I found a copy of The Swiss Family Robinson, which I remembered from my childhood as being very exciting and also very wholesome. We watched it and loved it again! Noah couldn't get enough of all the adventures, and would request this video over and over. I agreed over and over, letting him watch it 30 minutes at a time. I didn't realize that even the mo

Probably not. It seems like everywhere I look these days I see ads that say "New Year, New You!" These are companies that no doubt want to sell me their latest gimmicky weight-loss tools or that want to promote their product that promises to make me into Someone Spectacular. That's the theory behind many New Year's resolutions too. Turn over a new leaf. Be better than you were last year. Be the person you always wanted to be! But I can't become a new person overnight. I can't change years of bad eating habits, disorganization, or lack of discipline just because it's January 1st. I have to have help in the form only God can provide. Apart from Him, I will join all the other people whose New Year's Resolutions are abandoned by March. New Year, New Me? No, I don't have grandiose plans of changing into Someone Spectacular, but here are some things I'll be working on this year with God's help: 1. Trying to learn as much as I can about