My Ebenezer

After a crazy morning of learning that our bank drained the money out of our account and is not giving it back (long story), I was driven to my Bible reading. I was too distracted to read right away so I just prayed for a few minutes. Then this afternoon I was able to go outside for awhile to enjoy the weather and read my Bible and here is the blessing I read from Numbers 11 of all places! (Pay special attention to the last couple of verses): 18"Say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, "Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat and you shall eat. 19'You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before Him, saying,...

It's fun to me to see the growth and development taking place in Noah's life. Today he went in for his 9 month check-up. Noah now weighs 22lbs and is 29 3/4 inches tall! At birth he was 10 lb 4 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long, so quite a difference. But even more fun than the growth are all the new things he is learning. I've counted at least 15 different words and phrases that I KNOW he knows the meaning of, and I'm sure there are more that he knows or is learning each day. Over the weekend he learned how to climb into the bathtub all by himself (I hope he doesn't translate that knowledge to his crib anytime soon!). He can stand alone and take one step by himself too! We're even beginning to see him practice a little manipulation, as he has learned how to fake cough and fake cry. I make him spend at least 30 minutes a day in his playpen to try to teach him to focus on a toy and not have the luxury of mobility. While he's in there I usually play a Patch ...

We went to the park again last night for some fun and relaxation. They are doing some construction there, so there are places where it's very sandy and dirt is piled up. We let Noah crawl around in that for a while, but he was trying to eat the dirt clumps and was rubbing his eyes with filthy fists, so we called it quits and brought him home for a bath (after snapping a couple pictures for posterity). The nursery ladies were commenting, and I agree, that Noah is ALL BOY! He loves to push, climb, investigate, and have lots of action. I hope in the years to come I have enough energy to keep up with him. :) Today he learned how to climb back down the stairs. We've been trying to teach him to go down bottom-first, and just today I've seen him approach the stairs on all fours, turn around, and put his feet down first. It is so much fun to see things like that "click" in his mind. In other news this week, we were able to have the interim pastor, Pastor Masitto, ...

If you had asked me on the way to church this morning what kind of day this would be, I would have grumbled that it was going to be one Frustrating Day, as Sundays sometimes are. Noah had spent the whole hour before we left fussing and crying, I had single-handedly gotten the entire family ready and out the door with a self-pitying sigh, and I'll be honest: I was not in the frame of mind to go to church. (As a sidenote, I've found that those times you want to go to church the least are the times you ought to go the most !) Noah fell asleep on the way to church, which only added to my frustration. You see, when he falls asleep on the way (usually in the last 10 minutes of the trip) he wakes up when we try to take him out of the car, and then doesn't go back to sleep, so the result is he has a 10-min morning nap. I am very fond of schedules, so this grates me the wrong way every time! But!!! After dropping Noah off at the church nursery, we headed up to Sunday School wh...

Today was a gorgeous day--the kind of day that makes it very clear why we love it here in Florida. Sunny. Warm. Cool breeze. Just beautiful! In the morning I took Noah grocery shopping, which I don't normally do, but we desperately needed to. And after lunch, Josh and I took Noah to the park to play and watch some soccer games. I don't think I've mentioned on here yet just how much Noah loves the park; namely, the SWINGS! We tried him on the slide today, but he seemed unimpressed like he didn't quite know what to think. After a round of that, the swing became available so we decided to go with what we knew worked. :) What a joy to be able to watch Noah having so much fun! P.S. I was just looking at this picture again and it struck me that Noah is losing his "baby" look and is starting to look, at least to me, like a little boy! Now when did that happen?

I'm definitely not a plant whiz. I can name your basic rose, hydrangea, daisy, daffodil, and the ones everyone else knows, but other than that, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to plants. Josh, in a sweet mood the other day, brought home a flower for me that he picked at one of the properties he owns. It's BEAUTIFUL! But I have no idea what it is. I haven't figured out how to "google" an image, so other than entering "red flower" and trying to weed through (pun intended!) all the results, I'm stuck! If you know the name of this beauty, please speak up! My guess would be some type of lily??

Noah has become an excellent stair-climber in recent weeks. It seems nothing thrills him more than to climb those stairs, all the way to the top! He peeks around the corner to make sure I'm watching, then shrieks with glee as he shows off his skills. He's very efficient too, and can shimmy up the stairs in about 30 seconds! :) He had a pretty rough fall the first time he tried to come down on his own, so I've been trying to teach him at every opportunity how to come down backwards, which is much safer than face-first!! Today he actually did it--climbed up a few stairs, then back down--successfully. So these days when it gets "too quiet", he can usually be found upstairs or at least on his way there. This new-found freedom for him has caused me to start leaving the bathroom doors closed, since his 2nd favorite activity is splashing in the potty! Grosses. Me. Out. It is so much fun to watch him learn all these new skills. I think the first year is the most amazing; ...

My mom left yesterday. The week went by so fast for all of us! I know I will miss having her to eat breakfast with and talk to, and her help taking care of Noah--it's so nice having an extra pair of hands (and eyes) around to ease the load a bit. This past week was a vacation of sorts for me, as I got to go shopping for things other than groceries, and relax a lot more than normal. So it's back to the daily routine now for me! One of the most frustrating things for Josh this week was the loss of 6 of the 7 baby bunnies! Seems an owl found out about them and decided to come snatch one every evening. Josh keeps a BB gun by the back door (carry-over from his childhood, perhaps?), and after the first 2 bunnies were taken, he was on-the-ready with his gun, but that owl is pretty fast and sadly we couldn't avoid the inevitable. I tried to make Josh feel better about it by pointing out that the owl has to eat too and maybe it has a nest of its own babies to feed, but that didn...

This is a video of Noah being a "sand crab" as my mom called him. He just crawled and crawled!

On Thursday last week, we took Noah to the beach for the first time. My mom was here, and we thought it would be fun to see what Noah's reaction was to the sand and sea. He absolutely loved it! While some babies would shrink in disgust at the sand (I have seen it with my own eyes), Noah wanted to eat, play with, crawl in, and almost be the sand! And when we took him down to the water's edge, he wanted to sit down in it. :) He had on a regular diaper so we couldn't actually let him sit in it, but he just loved every part! The funniest thing was when he was put down in the sand, he would take off crawling and flipping up sand with every "step". He was like a little machine. It was sooo cute. :) Hopefully I will always remember the first time we took him to the beach.

Every Tuesday for 4 1/2 hours, I babysit a little boy with Down Syndrome named Caleb (pictured above). While I love to help out my neighbor (whose son he is), and have extra spending money (I make $25 a week), it has become a trial. Unless he is being fed or taking a nap, he is crying! I haven't gotten the courage to ask his mom if this is just me, or is he always this way? How do you ask a mother if her child is just perpetually miserable? :) I think she was hoping that being around Noah would be a good thing, since Noah is almost ready to walk (that's a whole other post) and she's hoping he will help Caleb with his development. Plus, it's good for babies to be around other babies. But Caleb is afraid of Noah, and nothing I have been able to do has helped. Hopefully soon I can figure out what will work and get these two playing together!

My mom is coming to visit us tomorrow! Her plane is supposed to get in at 8:26pm and she will stay one week, Lord-willing. I am really looking forward to seeing her again, and I know she is excited to see Noah! Sometimes I feel the need for some grown-up conversation in a day, and it will be nice to have her to catch up with and talk to. While she is here, we plan to go clothes shopping (though I will be shopping for a new purse since my old one is biting the dust), and I have a small sewing challenge that I'm hoping she can help me with. Also planned is an evening of Fried Chicken, Biscuits, Peas, and Rice with Gravy. This is my all-time favorite meal that she used to make while I was growing up, and I love it every time! No one fries chicken or makes biscuits like my mom! Is it tomorrow yet? :)

Last Fall, Josh decided he wanted to buy a couple of bunnies to keep as pets, in hopes that they would reproduce and give us cute cuddly babies. Well the first 2 he bought (promised to us by the pet shop owner to be a male and a female) turned out to be both males, so no "go" there. I don't exactly remember how we ended up with 6 rabbits, but we did; 2 males and 4 females. Baby bunnies comin' right up! Right? Wrong. Here we are in Spring, and Josh and I were figuring all the myths about rabbits reproducing were a bunch of bunk. Except!!! One day last week I was seating Noah in his highchair and happened to look out the window and saw what looked to be little fluff balls toddling about the yard. So finally, in addition to our adult bunnies, we have 7 Cute As Can Be little baby bunnies. And now we think another rabbit is pregnant.... We'll have to wait to see how many bunnies we end up with!! I have thought on more than one occasion what an ironic thing it is for a...

After much deliberation, I have decided to join the ranks of the Bloggers. I resisted so long because I didn't want "one more thing" to add to my To Do list and be a slave to a blog. On the other hand, this is the easiest way I can think of to document our daily life, so finally the blog won out. Not to mention, I really enjoy reading the blogs of my friends and have been inspired by them. Let me first place this disclaimer: I may not post every day or even every week. I want to run the blog, I don't ever want it to run me. But I am really looking forward to keeping track of my memories, little and big! So if you've found me and care to keep up, Welcome! I'm glad you're here.