My Ebenezer

Several weeks (months?) back I posted a prayer request regarding Noah and his utter lack of respect for our authority in his young life.  Josh and I have been praying daily for him, and over the last couple of weeks we've seen a real change in him that I had to write about!  One day a different management method just seemed to dawn on Josh, and he told Noah that for every time he was told to do or not do something, he must say "Yes, Daddy (or Mommy)."  If he did not, he would get a strike.  Three strikes and he would be "out" and we would jump to a new level of discipline. Unbelievably, it has worked!  We have only had to go to the higher level of discipline about once a week for this offense, and now we do not have to remind him repeatedly to show respect; he just does it.  This has translated into a night-and-day difference in our parenting experience with Noah.  Not only that, but Noah seems generally happier too.  I can only give credit to God for working

It's been a while since I posted a recipe, and I have to say, this one was worth the wait!   Pssst! Do not attempt these if you are like me and have little to no self-control; they're made with cream cheese and you will eat each and every one!  (the recipe calls for apricot preserves, but I substituted raspberry.  You can decide for yourself..) Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies 1 1/2 cups   butter, softened 1 1/2 cups   white sugar 1 (8 ounce) package   cream cheese, softened 2   eggs 2 tablespoons   lemon juice 1 1/2 teaspoons   lemon zest 4 1/2 cups   all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons   baking powder 1 cup   apricot preserves 1/3 cup   confectioners' sugar for decoration In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the cream cheese mixture until jus

I feel safer at night knowing this little man sleeps prepared! 

"What are SpaghettiOs?" Noah asked me the other day. "You've never heard of SpaghettiOs?" I asked, incredulous.  I thought that was one of the requirements of being a kid.  Shocked that my son had never before experienced the admittedly-overly-hyped goodness that is SpaghettiOs, we bought some today at the grocery store (on sale for 89 cents!).  Both Noah and Seth gobbled them up and loved every bite.  Me?  I'm so over it, but I did enjoy my turkey-and-cheese-on-multigrain-bread. :)

This past weekend I had the stomach flu.  What started out as a fun date with my husband quickly went south as halfway through our meal I began to realize that things were not going well for me and my stomach.  We returned home, where I promptly locked myself in the bathroom...and stayed there until morning.  There's a certain clarity that comes to you as you're lying there on the bathroom floor all night, pale and miserable; Normal Is Good. Have you ever stopped to consider how often we take Normal for granted? That's even inaccurate.  We don't take Normal for granted; we complain about Normal .  Normal, everyday life, which is such a blessing from God; the fact that we are hungry, the work we have to do, the people we serve, the messes we clean up, the time we have or don't have--I have complained about all of it. So I consider it a great blessing that, for 24 hours this past weekend, a lot of my "normal" life was taken away so that the Lord could re

Today at lunch, after Seth tried to pry the spoon out of my hand, I decided to see how he would do feeding himself.  Remarkably well, it turns out!  See for yourself!

1.  Receive the World's Most Beautiful Poinsettia from your neighbors at Christmastime. 2.  Place it outside on the front porch to bring a little cheer to your entryway.  3.  Water and admire it. 4.  Forget about it during a deep-freeze of 24 degrees overnight. 5.  Voila! Poinsettia should be sufficiently dead with no hope of revival.  The moral of this sad-but-true story is:  Never Give Live Plants To Me.  They Just Won't Make It.   Fresh-cut roses, however, I will take since I can't damage those. :)

I mentioned in my previous post that we had two straight days of rain last week.  We did.  And we had lots and lots of mud.  Seth was going batty from 2 days of being cooped up in the house, so I let him outside on the condition that he not get too wet or muddy.  Yeah. Right.  I guess that's what washing machines are for!

We have had unusual opportunity to wear hats early this year because the weather turned surprisingly cold this week!  39 degrees is technically too cold for me to take anyone to the park, but I made an exception because we had just experienced 2 straight days of rain the days before.  We. Had. To. Get. Out. P.S.  We lasted 15 minutes before I determined it to be Too Cold To Continue any longer at the park.  I have officially become a Florida Sissy.  To think I used to remove snow and ice from my car every morning when we lived in New Hampshire!

A clean slate, a fresh start, a new leaf, the beginning of a new year always feels refreshing to me.  We love new beginnings, don't we?  I'm thankful that the God I serve is the author of new beginnings, and freely willing to extend forgiveness and a whiter-than-snow garment in exchange for my filthy rags. Praise the Lord for His goodness! I'm still here blogging faithfully and almost daily in my head, with only a fraction of those posts making it onto my computer, and so I think I will give my 365 Project a rest this year.  It turned out to be more of a 200 project anyway, and started to stress me out when I would forget to take pictures or not have time to post.  I may pick it up again another time, but for now I think I'll just not. :)  Happy New Year!