My Ebenezer

This was taken Saturday night, after our babysitter cancelled our date.  We decided to take all the kids to the restaurant we had already chosen--Chuy's. Despite a 30-minute wait for our food (with Eden, that feels like 30 hours), we enjoyed the time together. Noah had fun snapping this selfie, and it helped pass the time a little.

This morning Noah was hoping to be allowed onto our shed roof to retrieve one of our bunnies (long story), but when Josh gave Seth the opportunity instead, Noah didn't take it too well. Boy is that an understatement.  It took us probably a half hour of correctional efforts, talking with him, pointing out and expositing to him to 3 or 4 passages of Scripture, repeating the gospel to him, and praying with him before he was finally able to move on with the day without a scowl. To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure we were able to get his heart to agree with what I was telling him. That's between him and God at this point. I pray that it wasn't a waste. At the time, I thought the whole thing was kind of silly and blown out of proportion.  Who cares about the shed roof thing? Why is that such a big deal? Get over it, right? But you know, it doesn't matter what the idol of the heart is; if you think that fill-in-the-blank is what it's going to take to make you ...

Josh has been encouraging me to develop some interests I have, and not be so burnt out with the daily work that I have. Laundry, dishes, and dusting will always be there waiting for me, so I might as well take a little time for some relaxation. It's about balance, right? I signed up for a drawing class online ($15!!) and I can go at my own pace, which so far has meant a lesson about every three weeks or so. I'm not going to set any time records, but that's okay. Here's what I've done so far in the class:

This is Ethel here. I'm 73, and I just wanted to tell you about my hiatal hernia. Isn't a hiatal hernia something that, well, old people get? It belongs in the same conversation as osteoporosis, arthritis, and glaucoma. Or so I thought. It turns out, thirty-seven-year-olds can have hiatal hernias too.  Like me. This is Joanna here. I'm 37, and I just wanted to tell you about my hiatal hernia. For the last year or so, or really ever since Eden was born, I have been dealing with upper abdominal pain on a daily basis, coupled with anemia. The pain was very hard to describe, and not super severe, so I tried to ignore it for a while. But in January, Josh sent me to the doctor to ask about it, and hence we started down a road of blood tests and doctor visits.  I ended up in a GI doctor's office, who then recommended a colonoscopy and endoscopy to diagnose the issue. Now, the colonoscopy I'll just have to save for another post, because... have you ever had one? You...

This Mother's Day, Josh's gift to me was to take one for the team--our team.  Both Seth and Eden came down with fevers yesterday, and so they had to stay home from church with someone today. While normally I am the obvious choice, I was scheduled for nursery duty during Sunday School, and felt bad about cancelling last minute.  So we decided I would go to Sunday School and then come home and relieve Josh, and he would attend the main service.  But then he remembered that there was to be a special Mother's Day lunch afterward, and he would feel incredibly dumb there by himself enjoying the food (and cheesecake!) while I was at home with 2 sick kids.  So as I was heading out the door, he told me just to stay the whole time! That was so sweet of him, don't you think?  I worked in the nursery (just one baby in there today!), enjoyed hearing Noah sing in the children's choir, listened to a really good message from Prov 31, and sat down to eat my salad and cheesecake ...

I posted this picture on Facebook with a caption that read "Last day of school! Fifth grade is complete." I went my way and a little while later it occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned the Lord or given Him credit of any kind! I went back to my post and added that I'm thankful for God's grace.  Sometimes I am startled by my lack of God-consciousness that is manifest in my life every day.  Lord, help me always think on You! But anyway, it is truly only by God's grace that we made it through this year. Probably the number one challenge this year was Eden.  I followed a schedule that we loved at the beginning of the year, but its demise was its heavy reliance on Eden's morning nap.  Mid-Novermber, when Eden gave up that nap, we struggled for several weeks fitting in things like Bible reading, Chemistry/Physics class for Noah, and basic housecleaning (dirty dishes for days!). I'll be honest; I also struggled with my attitude during those weeks.  Wha...

Look at that face! It's been a while since I took a picture of just Seth, or even since I have written a post about him.  I'm going to start with something that sounds kind of critical, but bear with me; I'm going somewhere with this. Seth is now 5 and a half, and cannot count to 20 without making a mistake (he always says 14, 15, 16, 19, 20).  When he gets to a number like 40, he'll instead say "30-10." As in: 37, 38, 39, 30-10. (which actually shows me he gets the concept, but he can't remember that you make a new number: 30, 40, 50, etc). He does not know very many of the letters or their sounds.  He struggles to hold a pencil correctly.  He has a bear of a time trying to memorize anything. To think I will have to teach him to read makes me apprehensive. Understatement.  However, the depth of the questions he asks shows me that he is a thinker, and he demonstrates that he is very smart in an outside-the-box kind of way. He's pretty contemplat...