My Ebenezer

We spent a quiet Christmas at home this year. Anytime I was tempted to ask "Why don't we travel to see family and snow for the Holiday?" Josh was quick to step in and remind me why. Oh, yes. Now I remember. :) So instead, we enjoyed our 73-degree Christmas by taking a boat ride across the stream and hiking through the Arboretum. A few other highlights from the day: We thanked God for sending His Son to earth to die for our sins. I think each year the meaning of Christmas becomes more real and dear to me. Hopefully soon we can help Noah to appreciate it! We have not placed any emphasis on Santa at ALL, yet when I asked him why we celebrate Christmas, he said, "Because Santa Claus comes." Hmmm.... Noah pulled Tic-Tacs out of his stocking and announced, "Pills!" :) I successfully hosted my first Christmas dinner! We had Lisa (from church) over for Christmas dinner, and also Matt, Jen, Brianne, and Titus were able to come! They had to leave a day early fr...

Call me boring, but I was never a Gift Shaker. You know the type: the ones that shake their gifts or pat them down, trying to guess what is inside, and then smile triumphantly if they get it right. They think that guessing accurately the contents of presents intended for them is more fun than actually opening them! My husband is that type. This is one of his little quirks that is so endearing and irritating to me at the same time (we all have quirks like that). It has caused a lot of laughter in our household this season! You see, by contrast, I never picked my gifts up or squeezed them, or went hunting through the closets in search of them. I didn't want to know. In fact, when I was six or seven years old, I accidentally stumbled upon a coloring book that was to be a Christmas present for me. At the time of course I thought it was thrilling to find out about it, until Christmas morning came and there was the coloring book, redundantly peeking out at me from my stocking li...

Today is our 9 Year wedding anniversary. Though normally we would choose to have a night all to ourselves, we were lacking a babysitter this year and so decided to take Noah with us out to eat. Armed with an activity book, crayons, and the travel version of Chutes And Ladders, the three of us entered The Cheesecake Factory. We had a GREAT time! Noah enjoyed it, and so did Josh and I for that matter! We were trying to explain to Noah what "anniversary" means, but he's having a hard time understanding (1) why we bother to celebrate a wedding that happened so long ago ("So are you going to a wedding today , Mommy?"), and (2) that we had lives before he was born. Seriously. He doesn't grasp the concept that Josh and I (and the rest of the world for that matter) lived and moved without him. He knows that he's 3 and we're 30, but really all that means to him is that we're bigger than he is. How we got to be bigger is just details to him. :) So 9 years!...

As requested by Jenny, here is the recipe for the cookies I showed you in a recent post. They are called Chocolate Mint Dreams. The crushed candy canes were added by me (not called for in the recipe), and I only colored half my icing green, leaving the other half white. I thought 2 colors of cookies was more interesting. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

For some reason, photos are uploading at an incredibly slow rate tonight, so I had to quit half-way through. Here are at least a few of the pics we took this month: Our sweet little Christmas tree. I wanted a small one this year, and I LOVE it! Everything about it was easier to do, and I think it's very cute and simple. Grammie Rowley teaching Noah his letter of the week (N) and some counting and numbers. Chocolate Mint Dreams. I made them for the Ladies' Meeting. We all shared a milkshake at Chick-Fil-A!

There are many good things about having company come over for dinner or an extended stay. But perhaps one of the biggest is that it forces you to clean your house! Don't pretend to be shocked; we all know there's nothing like having people over that forces you to get real about the grime that you've allowed to collect. The floor under your 3-year-old's chair. Your 3-year-old's chair. Your bathroom floor. Your sink. You know what I mean. And I know it's not just me! Supper Six group tonight at our house. My house is clean. :)

I have finally managed to snag a few minutes to sit down and regroup. Here's what you missed over the last couple of weeks: We got and decorated our Christmas tree. Josh's mom came to visit for a week, and we all had a great time! I got recruited to play "Away In A Manger" for the children's choir at church (!). Don't be impressed; I assure you the song is in its simplest form possible. :) The kids are to sing it on Dec 26. I've been Christmas shopping. Decorating. Baking. That sort of thing. We've watched The Swiss Family Robinson all the way through at least twice (it's Noah's current favorite from the library). I'm sure that won't be the last time. I don't think 5 minutes go by in that movie without some sort of high-adventure. It's right up Noah's alley. Noah is still learning a letter a week. This happens to be "O" week. In the interest of all of our waistlines, I've cut out the baking projects o...

Recently a couple of you have tried to leave rather lengthy comments on my posts, which is VERY welcome! I love to hear your comments. I wish more people would comment. Hint, hint. But anyway, you must be getting error messages, or some gremlin is telling you your comment is too long to be posted. Don't pay any attention to that. Tell that gremlin to be quiet, and just post it anyway. It shows up in my comment section uncut in all its lengthy glory, and blesses my heart. No need to post it in increments! And if any of you see that little gremlin, tell him to stop lying and comment away! :) That's all.

"For I proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He." Deuteronomy 32:3-4 A God of faithfulness and without injustice . Yet, don't I accuse Him of injustice any time I complain or harbor jealousy? Been thinking a lot about infertility again lately. Heard a few pregnancy announcements recently, none of which was my own. But God is without injustice, He told me so in His Word. No matter how it feels , God is without injustice. and "His work is perfect." That was an encouragement to me today!

I find it kind of humorous (but not really) that as soon as I posted yesterday's blog about Noah going to bed well, that we would have a night like we had last night. Oh my. It was every bit as bad as one of his worst nights, all the way from the excuses and disobedience to the discipline necessary, finishing with two very-worn-out parents 45 minutes later. Patience was thin. Our faith was tested. If it is this hard for me to effectively parent Noah through all his sinfulness and rebellion, all I can think is that God must be infinitely more gracious than I can even fathom, to persist in loving me through all my sinfulness. Because He loves and chastens a sinful me without sinning Himself. Oh, to be like Thee!! There's something to chew on for a bit!

I wanted to share some things that the Lord has been doing lately: 1. Noah has been doing MUCH better going to bed lately. I don't know what the difference has been. We haven't done anything differently, just sticking it out and praying hard. I'm so thankful the Lord seems to be answering this request! I can't explain the stress level at bedtime for that month or so. Now it's getting much better. Still a relapse every few nights, but it doesn't take nearly as long to get him obedient again. Praise the Lord! 2. The alarm clock "trick" has been a beautiful addition to our mornings. I only wish I had done it sooner! Noah has so cheerfully stayed in bed until 7am. I have been able to finish my exercising each day, and in some cases even begin a shower before Noah gets up. Of course my ideal would be to actually finish the shower before he gets up, because there's just nothing like a 3-year-old standing outstide the tub asking if you're...

I love family photos! Other people's, my own, it doesn't matter. There's something comforting to me about family photos. Josh does not share my affection for them. Last year at Christmas, we were hard-pressed to find a single one in our Olan Mills photo shoot where he was smiling. His face in almost every picture said, "My wife dragged me in here." It was cute in an irritating sort of way. We can laugh about it now. :) I've figured out it's the formal photo shoot that he bucks against. He much prefers candid shots. When we were in Connecticut last August, our friend Cory Hoover offered to take pictures of our family. Josh got his pasted-on smile ready, and we headed over to her backyard. Me excitedly, him not so much. BUT when we got there, Cory told us that the best pictures are candid anyway. The less-posed you look, the better. Here are some of my favorites from that photo shoot. The group shots especially tickled me! I'm only showing ...

Confession: I am 30 years old and still have never made a Thanksgiving meal! Maybe someday I'll have Thanksgiving at our house and figure out the whole how-do-I-cook-a-turkey question, but for now I am thankful to have friends and family who have hosted all our Thanksgivings. On Thanksgiving Day about lunchtime we left for Viera, FL (about 2 and 1/2 hours south of here) to see our longtime friends, the Fallons. We really enjoyed our time there eating way too much delicious food, and talking with them. As always, we went with the purpose of being a blessing to them, but are sure they were the bigger blessing. :) Thank you to the Fallons for a fun, relaxing holiday! The Fallons have a swimming pool, and invited us to bring our swim suits. That was all the invitation Noah needed. As soon as we arrived, he began asking to swim in the pool. Friday morning, at about 7:30am, when most people were Black Friday Shopping, Noah was shimmying into his swimsuit and floaties. The pool was freezi...

Don't call Noah a little kid. It won't be pretty. These days he's very sensitive about this issue. He gets very miffed if you call him a little kid or think for some reason that he's anything but a Big Kid. Case in point: A couple Sundays ago, Pastor Rowley (aka, Uncle Matt) was dismissing the Two's & Three's class to Sunday School. "At this time the little kids can be dismissed to their classes." Noah was already halfway out of our row when he heard this. He stopped. Looked at me, alarmed. "I'm not a little kid!" For all the church to hear. He planted his feet. Wasn't. Going. Anywhere. It took all my strength to drag him out of our row and deposit him in his Sunday School class. This past week, Pastor Rowley amended his statement: "At this time the YOUNGER kids can be dismissed." I wonder why? :)

Compounded with Noah's recent crazy bedtime behavior, I forgot to mention that for the past couple of months, he has been waking in the morning before 7am (6:30 or 6:45 to be exact. It was 6:20 one morning.). Now before those of you parents of REALLY early risers get out your tomatoes and warm up your throwing arm, let me reiterate that the bedtimes over here have been nightmarish.** We're talking not getting to sleep until around 10pm. I'm sorry, but 10pm to 6:30am just is NOT enough sleep for a 3 year old (in my opinion). It's barely enough sleep for me . At the very least, I need him to have more sleep than that. So I did what any I'm-desperate-for-my-mornings-back parent would do: I went out yesterday and bought Noah a ....drumroll please..... Big Boy Digital Alarm Clock. (I cannot take credit for the idea I am about to share with you. My dear lifelong friend Holly shared it with me. I would hug Holly right now if I could.) I brought the clock home, plugged it ...

I love helping Noah get dressed. It's the way his belly sticks out and he doesn't care. It's the way he giggles when we pull the shirt over his head and there's a brief moment when we all wonder if his head is going to fit through the hole this time. But more than anything, it's the way he rests his hands on my shoulders for balance. These are some of my favorite moments of the day! I just needed to say that.

I have always thrived on routine, and something inside of me rejoiced when I heard that small children thrive on routine too. YAY! Routine: check. I can handle routine. Josh dutifully, and I excitedly, began a bedtime routine with Noah from infancy. Bath, pajamas, Bible story, prayer, songs, bed. It was beautiful. We all looked forward to it. It worked. Until 3 weeks ago. It began with a simple request for a drink of water and escalated into a battle of wills heretofore unparalleled in our household. We gave Noah his simple drink and said "goodnight." Then, somewhat fussy-sounding, the little voice asked if he could tell me something. "No," I said. "It's time to go to sleep." Noah, full-on fussy now: "But I want to!" And such began a sequence of discipline, reproof, and correction that lasted 45 minutes. Forty-five minutes!! And we (get this!) thought it was a fluke. It wasn't. It's as if we have a Jekyll and Hyde on ou...

My dear friend Alice informed me, way back in July when Noah turned three, that I had better watch out. "Age three is much worse than two," she said knowingly. Alice has had 5 children and has raised them commendably. I smiled and thanked her for her advice and thought to myself, "It couldn't possibly be worse." Dummy! It. Is. I don't know if we have done something wrong or what, but age three is Much Worse than two, at least for our little boy. Maybe it's just the current trial we are facing with Noah that is making me say this. Maybe it's just our son. Maybe it's our parenting techniques or lack thereof. Maybe.... All I know for sure is that Josh and I have been driven to our knees over child-raising more times over the past few weeks than probably in Noah's whole career as our child. Maybe that is God's point: to remind us that we can't do this thing alone! That He has all the answers. That we need Him. I've been read...

The Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair was in town last week, and we decided to make an annual tradition out of it and attend again. This time we brought Matt and Jen and their kids with us. My mom wasn't able to come due to all the walking that was required. Surprisingly, Noah remembered much about the Fair from last year, especially the rides. From the moment we got there he began begging to go on the Motorcycle Ride again, which was apparently his favorite ride from last year. So cool. Noah and me on the roller coaster. Jen and Brianne right behind us. I'm so sorry about this picture, Jen! But I'm laughing as I type that. I have no idea what that face was for. She doesn't normally look like that, folks. :) In a fluke turn of events, Noah won a fish! Sadly, the fish didn't fare so well... Noah kept shaking the bag as he carried it around (Finding Nemo, anyone?) and the next morning the poor fish was looking a little sick. We let him go in the strea...

Noah and his cousin Brianne don't always get along. Kids their age have a very hard time sharing or being self-controlled or even very considerate of each other. Some mornings with the two of them turns into a constant referee job, but then there are times like today when they are both sweet, and you remember that kids are treasures. It's times like these when you had better run inside to get the camera and prove to yourself and to posterity that Yes, they did get along sometimes! Here's our proof: Brianne singing "Skinamarinky-dinky-dink." Don't ask me to spell that again. If you have no idea what song that is, you totally need to google it. You'll be glad you did. Points to note: Both children are sitting next to each other. Without fighting. Peacefully. Brianne is singing . What a great morning!

Is there anything more fun to a kid than bubble wrap? This kept him occupied for a full 15 minutes! Impressive. One rainy night, we played Candy Land Yes, now that I think of it, there is something more fun than bubble wrap; riding a bike through a puddle in the rain! Folks, it was raining as I took that picture. Now that's livin'! Splashing is pretty cool too. Ladies' meeting at our house I love these ladies! Story Time with Grandma Jelly Roll time with Mommy The finished product. Tasty!

There is a family in our church with a 5-year-old little boy. Last spring, they gave us a huge bag of his outgrown clothes for Noah, and they've been very generous to pass along toys that were no longer used as well. Last night at church they gave us this horse! I had one similar to it when I was a little girl, and Noah loves his like I loved mine. P.S. Please excuse the mess in Noah's room. It's not always like that, I promise.

Confession: There have been times I have not blogged because I couldn't come up with a decent title. I have sat there staring at my New Post page for 10 or 15 minutes, waiting for something really witty to hit me. It usually doesn't, and then I just come up with something trite or common and move on, determined not to let my own lack of creativity thwart me. But there are other days when I truly come up empty and then give up on the post altogether and go do something entirely different that doesn't require thinking, like swabbing the toilet. That was almost the outcome today, until I decided NO, I am not going to let the absence of a title for this post scare me off. I'll blog anyway, thank you very much. So here I am, basically title-less and willing to move on if you are. So. What's new with you? Noah and I did our weekly baking project today, and made Jelly Rolls for "J" week. In other news, we plan to go to the fair tomorrow night. Noah is pumped...

1. I am still here. I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Life goes in cycles, and right now I'm in a busy cycle. De'. Ja. Vu. 2. My mom is here visiting for a 2 1/2 week stay while renovations take place in her bathroom at home. We have loved having her here! 3. Noah is getting more ornery by the day it would seem. Sorry, just speaking the truth. Maybe if I wanted to speak the truth in love I should write, "Noah is getting more ornery by the day, bless his heart." Southern joke. Anyways... 4. Last Friday I caught a very nasty cold that has been revealing itself a symptom per day over the course of a few days. Started with a sore throat. Add to that a fever. Next day came clogged ears, followed by chest congestion and a cough the day after that. Then came the runny nose. Today I am complete (hopefully) with all the above symptoms minus the fever. I will say that it has been lovely having my mom here during this time, as she's able to ease the burden of ente...

I've lived in Florida for over 6 years now. The first couple of years here I was still too busy thawing out to care about missing the Fall season. "Endless summer? Bring it on!" Now, 6 years later, I have rosy memories of Fall in New England and I miss it. For the record: I do not now, nor do I think I will EVER miss the kind of winters we endured. No sir. ;But Autumn stirs up in me a wish for crisp, cool mornings and vibrant colors. I took this picture a few weeks ago, thrilled to see some kind of color on a tree. But it got better. Look what happened a few weeks later: I don't know if that is some kind of flower on those trees or what, but it is so pretty, don't you think? It's giving me my Autumn fix for the moment.

I've noticed that once you move into a house, all those little projects that were left unfinished....stay unfinished. Or at least it takes a very very very long time to get around to doing them. Very. Who can blame you? Unpacking and making things look like home is challenge enough, without adding extra projects on top of it all. Not to mention that life has to keep going. Laundry, work, cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, shopping, etc etc etc. Who has time to spackle? I still have high hopes for our patio room, which at present houses our Christmas decorations, various odd construction materials, and some pretty depressing wall studs. High hopes, yes, but not for tomorrow. For "sometime." And now, I have more hope that "sometime" will actually come! Over the past few weeks, we've been trying to tackle the remaining last few things that needed to be done, and it feels so good to have accomplished them! Take the under-the-microwave area for example. When w...