Disclaimer: (for those who only visit us for pictures :-))Sorry, no pictures on this one. We just downloaded a whole bunch of pictures onto our computer, but the laptop is being slow, so I'll have to post from the desktop later!)
Owen's new word is hammer. :-) He got a workbench with lots of plastic tools for Christmas and he loves to run around the house and fix things with his hammer. We are discouraging hammering on the walls, TV or our sliding glass doors...but permit him to bang on other surfaces. He started saying hammer (really its his first two syllable word outside of Momma and Daddy) on Monday afternoon while he was hammering the cabinets in the kitchen.
We are working on obedience and trying to formulate a plan for discipline. Last night we put Owen in time out three different times and had to spank him for biting (something he RARELY does, thankfully!). Yikes. The hardest part is that he thinks we are playing a game (telling him no, even though we use very serious voice!) with him until the actual action of discipline takes place. I think we'll be ok. He is still Mr. Sensitivity and seems to catch on quickly. These last couple of days have just been a little more...interesting. :-) He's trying out the defiant and mischievous thing....and we're trying our very best to discourage it! I'm going to pick up a parenting book my friend Amy House (from Grace) recommended to me. She's a facebook friend and has a three year old so she's always throwing me some good parenting advice! (see how great community is on facebook! Seriously...if you haven't joined yet...get with the program!) :-)
Also, I would like to say that I just love having a boy...love love love it. I think in my pre-baby days I would have never thought I could love having a boy like I would have imagined loving having a girl. But the momma-son thing is super special. Of course, I'll have a whole new set of wonderful emotions and feelings when and if God gives us a baby girl.
I was reading in a parenting magazine at the gym yesterday evening about how each baby stage you are in really is the best stage. I so so agree. I have absolutely loved each and every stage of Owen. I MISS the baby stage...but LOVE where we are now. Every single age period has been perfect. I think I'll remember the next time I have a newborn how fast everything goes and to worry less and SAVOR more...but I'm not going to get upset about my kids growing up. Every stage is a new adventure and brings new joys and blessings. Basically being a parent is awesome. (remind me that when I have teenagers, ok?) :-)
February has been a good month for us. A cold, stay inside kind of month, but fun nonetheless. Josh blew me out of the water when he organized a "surprise" birthday party for me the weekend of my birthday! Wow! He totally gets points for this because I was just complaining to HIM about how he would never be the kind of husband to throw me a party! It was great! I had nearly 30 friends over to visit me (including the Hoovers from Winona Lake with their new baby Alexander!) and it was a great time. Josh also got me a new little camera (I think its a Cannon powershot...I'm not great with knowing the brands, all I know is that its little, cute and pink and it fits in my diaper bag!), roses and for Valentines he got me a pair of dark brown UGG boots! Seriously. Its been a good month for me! Lest you think Josh has gotten slighted, for a Valentines Day surprise I agreed to purchase a new TV for our living room...a 32 inch lcd that his dad had connections to a good deal for. I'm not much into high tech TV's or electronics of any kind but this deal was too good to pass up and hopefully this will keep Josh happy on the TV end for awhile.
We are finishing up a series at College Park in the book of Job, titled Suffering: I choose to bless. Shew. Its been a hard series for reasons I won't choose to share here...but God has definitely been working in my heart and hopefully the next trial I encounter I will apply the lessons I learned in this series and "suffer well". I wanted to share some quotes that Pastor Mark referenced in his last sermon. One is from the evangelist George Mueller: (I'm copying Pastor Mark's outline he has posted at www.yourchurch.com)
(who preached his wife’s funeral message after 39 years of marriage. He spoke from Psalm 119:68) – ―"Thou are good and do good.‖ His outline was ―God was good and did good: 1) In giving her to me 2) In so long leaving her to me
3) In taking her from me He also said:
"I miss her in numberless ways, and shall miss her yet more and more. But as a child of God, and as a servant of the Lord Jesus, I bow, I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father, I seek by perfect submission to His holy will to glorify Him, I kiss continually the hand that has thus afflicted me".
Secondly, Sarah Edwards. The wife of Jonathan Edwards "who died at 54 after 31 years of marriage. Sometime after the funeral, Sarah wrote the following to her daughter":
"What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hand on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband and your father has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be".
I just loved these quotes! I especially love the end of Sarah's quote..."We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be".! What wisdom and faithfulness in that statement! My hope is that I will remember these lessons that God has taught me through this series and that I will draw upon his goodness in hard times...that I may honor him through suffering is my prayer!
Lastly, I know a majority of you who read have no desire to know my thoughts on life so if you are just here for pictures and a quick update I don't fault you at all for not reading through this or not commenting. However I do know that that SOME of you are blessed by my ramblings and for that reason I choose to keep on posting in some form what the Lord has been teaching me. Thanks for indulging me and I hope that in some small way you will be blessed by what God is doing in our lives.
Happy weekend all....a fun and much lighter post will surely follow soon! :-)
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing all of that, Kim! Those quotes are amazing...they made me tear up. It's challenging and encouraging to read about people honoring the Lord as they suffer--makes it seem a little more do-able, if and when those situations rise up in our own lives. Thanks! :)
I love reading your thoughts. Thank you for choosing to write them out! There was so much I was nodding along with. I too love having a boy. I feel like moms with girls or women who haven't had babies yet tend to think boys are "icky" and hard to understand. I admit I wanted a girl when I was pregnant with Clark, which cracks me up now because I LOVE HAVING A SON! Now that I have a daughter, yes, there are special things about both genders and I equally love having a daughter. But I think it actually caught me off guard and surprised me that boys are so cool! Ha! Also, I felt exactly how you said with baby #2. I knew it would go by in a flash and I tried to soak every second up instead of stressing out about stuff and guess what? I blinked and she's six months old already. :) Looking forward to seeing you this week!
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