Treasure in Heaven

Two weeks ao we studied the fowls of the air and the lillies of the field from Jesus' sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where theives break through and steal...
The following week I gave the girls their new May toys.  Faith got a great Farm Cube puzzle to go along with our P is for Pig week and Rebekah got a cute little Hide and Peek Chocolate set.  They both loved their new toys.  Well the two rectangle shaped chocolates from the set have disappeared.  We hadn't left the house between the time we got the toy and I realized they were not just misplaced in their little kitchen or something so I know they are in the house and probably together but I have turned our house upside down in search for them and they are nowhere to be found.  I was getting more and more irritated with the girls with every investigation that turned up empty.  Every time I looked under a bed or behind a piece of furniture that did not produce the lost article, I could feel my anger rising.  "Why can't they take care of their toys!"  "I just bought this"  "They haven't been playing with it for a week and it is already ruined!"  Normally my girls take very good care of their things.  We haven't lost a toy or part of a toy in over a year when Dolly was found behind my Grandmother's Bible on a bookshelf!  But I was still really annoyed, probably becasue I thought this was a great toy and how dare they ruin it!  As I was venting my frustration to Frank later he reminded me that other people in this family have been known to put fingernail polish remover on the coffee table, blighting it permanently and we still manage to use it and not continually condem the offender for the act.  Well, that was me of course who took the stain off the coffee table with a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover.  I try to hide it with a coaster but for the most part it has just become a continual reminder for me that all of this material stuff will pass away and my treasure is not here but in heaven.  It was also a good lesson for me in the fact that I did it, not Frank because of course if he'd ruined my coffee table I would have been furious but since it was me I expected grace.
My kids make mistakes, I make mistakes, even my husband makes mistakes (occasionally) but we are storing up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust (nor acetone) doth corrupt  and where thieves do not break through nor steal (or misplace). 

**JUNE 8, 2013 UPDATE** In the process of looking for the chocolate and pizza pieces I found a piece of meat from the Melissa and Doug Stir Fry Set that belongs to my dear friend with whom we did a weekly toy swap before they moved away.  They moved in February and who knows how long it had been in that bag of bags before that.  Then one day while talking to Sabrina on the phone I realized that the piece of meat was missing!  I began searching for it and in my search found the pizza and chocolate set!  It was smashed partially under the shoe bucket and partially behind the bookshelf.  Elated that I found my toys, I was really upset that I'd lost hers, even though a week earlier neither she nor I knew it was missing!  I ended up finding it a few days later in the pocket of my apron where I'd put it for safe keeping.  Then today Frank presented me with the "pinch" measuring spoon I have used for years to measure out the girls' probiotics that go in their morning milk.  Over a month ago I'd lost it and eventually realized I must have thrown it out by its being stuck to a garbage bag I was using on the counter to put the days cooking refuse into.  Apparently when I took the bag out to the garbage bin the spoon fell off and got partially buried in the grass because today while playing with the girls outside my pinch was found!  Now I don't have to use 2 smigins anymore :)  Just some good reminders from God our treasures must be in Heaven, He does provide for our needs on earth, even the little pinch needs!

Rebekah Joy 31 Months

Rebekah 2 years 7 months

Sleeping – No real changes from last month.  She did get out of bed one day to get her blanket which had fallen down.  She got back in bed and confessed the whole thing to Frank when he came in to wake her up that day. 

Play – She loves “singing and dancing” during Mama time, to a CD of nursery rhymes we have, and recently she has fallen in love with getting dizzy.  Still loves chalk and it is with that she has taught herself to write!  She really loves playing with magnetic dress up dolls.  Faith got a set for her birthday and they are Rebekah’s favorite of what she received J  She also likes building towers, with legos or pegs or whatever she can. 

Skills – Jumping with 2 feet off the ground.  She was so proud of herself to accomplish this feat.  Her imagination is so cute.  She still loves her stuffed animals (mostly bears) and is always saying they like this or that song or they are playing this or that game.  She taught herself to write Fs and Hs.  She is practicing writing Ms but that one isn’t as easy.  Her speech is outstanding.  I constantly have people tell me how well she speaks and what a large vocabulary she possesses.   It is always nice to know other people can understand her!  She is pretty adventurous as well.  The opportunity arose to ride a horse and grandma’s house and she was excited the whole time leading up to it and loved every minute of it, even though the entire trek was in the rain!  One day during solo play she decided to climb up to Faith’s bed and then was really upset because she couldn’t get down so she has learned to go up a ladder but not down. 

Education – She is so smart.  On a trip to the grandparents’ house she saw a map of the world that looked totally different than the map we have at home but she still recognized, unaided, all the countries we’d discussed in pre-school.  She recognizes all her numbers and about a dozen letters on sight.  She remembers EVERYTHING.  In the commissary the other day she announced that ourangutang starts with O and I am sure everyone around me though I was insane but she is right :)

Full Time Nanny

I don't write too much about my personal thoughts here but I am going to try and do that more so that this blog becomes a record of my walk with God as well as of my children and our lives.

As I watched my neighbor's nanny walk into her house one day I sighed and thought "must be nice."  At that moment I remembered the dozen or so times that I have excitedly pinned something on Pintrest knowing in my heart that the only way that project is getting accomplished is if I have a full time cook/housekeeper/nanny.  I let my mind wander to my neighbor's Pintrest life and wondered if her DIY projects were highlighted there as I thought mine would be if I had someone to watch the kids while I crafted.  At that moment God spoke to me and told me that if I had a full time cook I would never have the joy of baking with my children.  Of laughing with Faith when she sprayed cocoa powder and flour all over the kitchen.  They would never know the delight and pride of telling Daddy "I made this for you" because the cook would take care of the meal preparations and I doubt would like the help of a 4 year old and 2 year old. 

 

If I had a full time housekeeper I would never be able to take any credit for teaching my girls a strong work ethic.  I might be able to eat off my floors but Rebekah would never run excitedly to me to show how much dirt she'd gotten on the bottom of her swiffer.  I would never see my girls ankle deep in bubbles in the bathtub with huge grins on their faces as they slide around in them.  Folding laundry takes twice as long when I have two small helpers but someday I plan to sit back with my coffee and watch them do all of it :)  Perhaps that is a dream but it certainly will never come true if I don't do the leg work for it now. 
If I had a full time nanny to watch the kids while I sewed them pretty dresses and created awesome crafts I would miss out on being their mommy.  They would be dressed in my creations and would be making some rockin' crafts but we wouldn't get to have spontaneous dance parties or sit down for some yummy pretend coffee and doughnuts in the pantry. 

This Mama business is no joke.  I get to teach them about Jesus, about the number of teaspoons in a tablespoon, and how to write an N.  Daily I am confronted with my own sin in this rock crushing profession of motherhood.  I am truly convicted when I read the words "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" (Matt 6:12) for how can I feel put upon by their flesh acting out and not have some twinge of how God feels when I fail against Him.  I have the most awesome responsibility in getting to raise up this next generation for Christ.  I love the quote from Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic "God has given us the job of teaching His law and demonstrating His grace.  We are to be guides to our children as they learn to walk with God."  I get to do these things while life happens inside my home which includes cooking, cleaning.  Some days I would love to get just a few more things done but really, what needs to get done will get done.  My kitchen table always seems to be sticky and there is a pile of junk on the kitchen counters that never seems to go away (just the contents change out every few months) but the girls won't remember those things (I hope); they will (hopefully) know Jesus and while looking at the pictures of our non-Pintrest worthy crafts, remember the fun we had making them :)

Thank you Jesus for some eternal perspective. 

Grace AnneMarie - 6 Months

Grace at 6 Months

There is a space on her baby calendar for dislikes and for the last two months there just hasn’t been anything.  Grace is the happiest and most contented baby, ever.  I have always had really happy babies (which I attribute both to their Daddy’s easy going personality and their being on a schedule) but Grace takes the cake on being happy.  Nothing fazes this kid!

Sleeping – We made the switch to a 4 hour schedule just before Grace turned 25 weeks.  She was waking up in the middle of the night to talk to herself and as I mentioned in her 5 month post, her naps had gone south.  The waking in the middle of the night signaled to me that she needed more wake time during the day and most probably, more wake time in the morning.  So, I started keeping her up longer  in the morning.  I also started allowing her to nap in her carseat for the entire nap rather than starting it in her bed and then having to move her to the swing after 45 minutes.  We started with a 3.5 hour schedule in the morning and that helped a little bit with the night waking but I still felt like she could go longer, especially because her nighttime bottle was becoming harder and harder to give her.  So, one day I just let her sleep for 2 ½ hours for her morning nap and then she took an equally long second nap and a 30 minute catnap around 5.  It took a few days for her to get used to that catnap and not being so unhappy after taking it but she did and now we are happily on a 4 hour schedule and she is doing great.  My next feat is to switch her to an 8am wake up time to match her older sisters.  That part is totally driven by my selfish motivation to have a longer naptime to myself because right now I have about 20 minutes of childlessness J

Eating – Nursing every 4 hours is going great.  She takes about 20 minutes to eat in the morning and then 10 minutes at each session after that.  She gets a 6-8oz bottle of expressed milk in the evening.  I haven’t felt the need to supplement with formula yet which is awesome!  I have been  drinking 3 glasses of Mama’s Milk Tea per day (since 3 months) and I don’t know if it is helping or not but it certainly isn’t hurting my milk supply so I will continue drinking it.  Spoon feeding is still an adventure J  She is getting about a TBSP of oatmeal at breakfast and then 2 oz of a veggie with lunch at 11am and 1oz of veggie at 3pm.  More veggies at that 3pm feeding and she doesn’t take her nighttime bottle as well.  So far she has tried peas, carrots, green beans, acorn squash, butternut squash, zucchini, summer squash, and sweet potatoes (those are her undisputed favorite!). 

Skills – Still doing awesome with tummy time and working on getting her butt up in the air.  She is learning to sit unsupported and doing very well.  When she does fall over, she is equally content on her tummy.   She is grasping objects and bringing them to her mouth.  She loves her teething rings and giraffe.  Those keep her well occupied while she sits with us during meals.   Smiles abound and she giggles a lot but has yet to do a really sustained and continuous laugh.