My Ebenezer

Here it is! The 25th week of 2013.  Boy, sometimes the days go by so slowly, but the weeks and months fly.  Why is that? After several weeks of blissful, we have passed into a valley of sorts in our household.  I have no idea what went wrong, but ever since we got home from Connecticut, Seth has plunged this house into a tons-of-crying, very-little-napping, not-very-nice place to be.  I've written about it in more detail previously, but this is largely why my photos have dropped off considerably.  Seth is rarely in a good mood anymore, and for that matter neither am I; at least not a mood that makes me want to take a photo.  Please pray for us if you think of it.  On my good days, I do my best to cast these difficulties at my Master's feet and leave them there.  On my bad days, well...it's very very hard.  Like the driving-me-crazy kind of hard. That said, here's week 25. Blurry, yes, but my point was to show how Seth sits a lot of th...

Noah with a play-doh helicopter I loved summer as a girl.  Who could beat the giddy endless string of Friday afternoons?  In the car on the way home from Noah's last day of Kindergarten, he said all full of wonder, "So, on Monday I don't have to go to school?  And Tuesday I don't have to go to school?  And Wednesday and Thursday and Friday for weeks and weeks I don't have to go to school? So every day is the weekend??" Pretty much!  Here's what we're up to: This summer, Noah and I are still working a little on schoolwork.  We signed up for Khan Academy, an online tutoring system.  Once he found out that you could earn points for doing the work, Noah was hooked.  We've been working on his Math skills, specifically addition and subtraction, telling time, and I also need to find one on counting money/coins. I've also assigned him some basic chores such as making his bed, cleaning the toilets, vacuuming, setting and clearing the table,...

Who gave this little guy permission to be 7 months old already?  It wasn't me!  Little man has 2 teeth, sits, crawls, and pulls up on furniture and my legs (earning him the nickname "Lumberjack Seth" for the way he digs his hooks in to climb up).  He does really well with baby food, and wants to eat whatever we're having at dinner.  I am so thankful for this little guy--for both my little guys really--and wouldn't trade them for anything!

I've decided, since I'm already two days late posting week 24, and I didn't get that many pictures anyway, and the ones I did get weren't that great or varied, that I'm going to combine weeks 24 and 25...so stay tuned this coming Tuesday (or Wed, or whenever I get a round to it) for weeks 24 and 25 in photos. In the meantime this week, I have been going through trials specifically designed by God to test my faith, and I've come up failing most of the time.  I cannot. handle. a crying baby.  It tears up my insides.  Seth is the proud new owner of a couple of teeth, painfully acquired over the course of the last couple of weeks, making for lots of screaming, almost a whole bottle of Motrin gone, and probably many more gray hairs for me.  For most people, my current trials are nothing that a good book and a bubble bath can't erase, but for me, the day-to-day has threatened to drive me batty.  I would pray beg for help, but really I just wanted the crying to ...

*whispers* I didn't actually take any photos for week 22, so if you'll excuse me, I'll just move right along and post for week 23... So week 23 recap:  we went away to CT for a little vacation.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it was great to see everyone and everything.  The plane rides? Not so much fun with a teething 6 month old.  I'll leave it at that. :) No trip to CT would be complete without plenty of this Uncle Matt with the 2 babies (Seth is in the red, Luke is in the blue) I noticed that some of  Mom's strawberries were ripe, so like any good daughter-in-law, I picked them (and ate a couple). :) Love me some peonies!  I have been trying to come up with an adjective that adequately describes peonies, but I cannot.  "Opulent" is about as good as I can come up with, but that doesn't even go far enough. Out cold on the way to Boston We took a swan boat ride around the pond in Boston Common, a la Make Wa...

I'm a little late posting this week, but I did manage to get some photos.  Here they are! I love me some baby bottoms--especially when they have a duck sewn on them! :) This swing was a blessing to find at a yard sale.  I had been wanting one for our backyard, and Josh told me if I could find one at a yard sale, he'd put it up for me.  That very week, I found this one in great shape for $2 with all the straps and ropes included.  God is so good! We had a ladies' tea fellowship at a tea room in town.  Loved this! True story:  I was in the kitchen when I heard Seth begin screaming in what sounded like sheer terror.  I walked into the office, where I found him parked in his walker, arms flailing, and a look of horror on his face...right in front of this aloe plant.  And when I got down eye-to-eye with the plant, I had to admit it looked a little scary in a creepy, spidery kind of way. With greater mobility comes a great...

Our last soccer practice of the season.  Yay for a break from 5:30 practices and very late suppers twice a week!  (Despite its inconveniences, though, soccer is so good for Noah!)  Seth's first ride on the baby swing at the park!  And Noah learning the art of pushing a baby on the swings.  ("Sorry, Noah, I just don't think Seth would appreciate an "underdog".  Thanks, though!) Noah showing me his stuff. Seth learned to sit AND crawl this week! Watch out! With Daddy away for an evening, Noah and Seth got to enjoy a bath, instead of the more efficient shower, which we usually opt for. Found this walker at a yard sale on Saturday.  I've found that once babies are mobile, they are no longer content in an exersaucer for very long.  Seth LOVES this new walker!  See below picture for the reason why... It took all of about 15 seconds for Seth to disassemble my dishwasher. And he's so proud of himself too! ...

I hope you had a great week 19!  Here's a glance at ours: Soccer Team Photo I went out on a limb and tried a new recipe; Pioneer Woman's White Chicken Enchiladas.  I thought they were absolutely delicious (and single-handedly ate all the leftovers over the next couple of days), Josh thought they were good, and Noah...well he choked them down. Which I really don't understand because he helped me make them, and was sampling the sauce all throughout, saying, "This is so yummy!"  I don't know what happened between the pan of sauce and the finished product that changed his mind. It's so hard to find a recipe that children like other than macaroni and cheese! I met a Pennsylvania friend of mine at the zoo.  She and her family were passing through Jacksonville on their way to Orlando for vacation, and we had fun at the zoo for a few hours in the morning. I even took Noah out of school for the day so he could come along.  It was educational...

It rained this week.  A lot.  This made for a rather cooped-up, no-soccer-games, let's-play-monopoly, bounce-off-the-walls (or couches), kind of week. :)  Fun in its own way, but we were definitely glad to see the sun again! Normally we would go outside after school, but due to the rain, it was a day to play Memory.  This particular version has Bible characters on  it.  Noah beat me! :) Have I mentioned that Seth likes things that crinkle?  He is very well-occupied if you give him a page or two from a magazine.  We had a church workday, and I busied myself organizing and cleaning the nursery... while some of the men had a more tiring job of demolition and working with plumbing under the concrete floor! Riding his bike through the puddle; the silver lining, if you will, of all the bad weather.  This is our stream/backyard after all that rain!  Just for perspective, that chair you see is in the grass, and ...