Well, Brandon turned 3 last week, so I decided we better start getting serious about potty training. [Incidentally, they call it "toilet learning" in the What to Expect the Toddler Years book... is that P.C. or what?! Whatever.] Anyway, I got a free DVD in the mail from Huggies, so I told Brandon we were going downstairs to watch the potty training video. It seems to be more directed toward the parents than to children, but Brandon was willing to sit in my lap for at least 10 minutes and watch. The narrator was an overly-smiley woman who seemed far too excited about potty training. Every time she'd say "potty training" Brandon would start asking where the train was.....
Hmmm...maybe I can work the train theme in with the potty chair... :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Opportunities to trust God!
Well, anyone who lives in the Minneapolis area is aware of the nasty thunderstorm activity we had on Thursday around lunchtime. I had just put the boys down for a nap when it started moving in. The sky blackened and the rain came down in buckets...and then the wind picked up. Oh my. I have never seen it blow so hard—there was so much rain and such strong wind, I could just barely see the houses across the street through the white sheets of rain.
As I was looking out the kitchen window, all of a sudden there was a loud crunching noise...as a HUGE tree branch from our Maple fell onto the roof of our garage...also leaning on the power line that runs from the tall wooden pole in the corner of our lot to the mast on the roof of our house. In fact, the pressure on the power line from the limb is so great, it actually bent the mast and pulled up the shingles around it. Yikes!
So I called Xcel Energy. The lady said they would come out "tonight" to take care of it. Well...I'm sure she meant "as soon as possible" since it was 5:30 p.m. when I called, and no one came that evening. The orange Asplundh truck (the tree trimmer guys) pulled up on Friday morning around 10:00 a.m. Two men assessed the situation in our backyard and the main dude told me, "Nope. We can't touch it." Huh? Well, apparently they just had a new rule put in place, that if the mast on the house is bent (i.e. damaged) they are not allowed to cut down the branches... because if there was further damage to the mast, it could cause a house fire. Oh, that's great news! I was proud of myself for not wigging-out on the guy. With composure I asked him, "I understand you don't want that liability. So where do we go from here?" He said I needed to call Xcel to have one of their electricians come out and do a 'line drop'—that is, to drop the power line from the pole. THEN they'd come back and do their work, and THEN Xcel would have to come back and hook the power line back up.
So I called Xcel and got a work order put in. I was kinda hoping they'd get it taken care of before the next line of storms rolled in...on Friday night. I found myself fretting on Friday afternoon about the possibility of tornadoes or our house starting on fire. But I chose to turn it over to God (as best I could!) by speaking His truths out loud: "God, I know that everything that happens to us passes through Your hands—nothing is an accident. I have no control over this, but I trust You—our future is in Your hands!" And He gave me peace. Every time fear started to creep into my mind, I'd pray a similar prayer aloud again.
The cool thing—the storms that went through our area on Friday night amounted to little more than heavy rain! No wind or tornadoes! So I was thanking and praising God over and over!! Just think how much energy I could have wasted (and an opportunity to strengthen my faith) if I had just worried and not chosen to cling to Him! [As a side note, I STILL would have clung to Him and trusted Him if something bad had happened.]
So now it's Saturday afternoon...and the tree limb is still hanging off the garage and pulling on the power line. And it's really quite gusty right now...so I'm hoping nothing gets damaged while we wait... Trust, trust, trust...
P.S. My spell-checker flagged "tornados" and suggested "tornadoes"—like the plural of potato... that looks weird to me...
As I was looking out the kitchen window, all of a sudden there was a loud crunching noise...as a HUGE tree branch from our Maple fell onto the roof of our garage...also leaning on the power line that runs from the tall wooden pole in the corner of our lot to the mast on the roof of our house. In fact, the pressure on the power line from the limb is so great, it actually bent the mast and pulled up the shingles around it. Yikes!
So I called Xcel Energy. The lady said they would come out "tonight" to take care of it. Well...I'm sure she meant "as soon as possible" since it was 5:30 p.m. when I called, and no one came that evening. The orange Asplundh truck (the tree trimmer guys) pulled up on Friday morning around 10:00 a.m. Two men assessed the situation in our backyard and the main dude told me, "Nope. We can't touch it." Huh? Well, apparently they just had a new rule put in place, that if the mast on the house is bent (i.e. damaged) they are not allowed to cut down the branches... because if there was further damage to the mast, it could cause a house fire. Oh, that's great news! I was proud of myself for not wigging-out on the guy. With composure I asked him, "I understand you don't want that liability. So where do we go from here?" He said I needed to call Xcel to have one of their electricians come out and do a 'line drop'—that is, to drop the power line from the pole. THEN they'd come back and do their work, and THEN Xcel would have to come back and hook the power line back up.
So I called Xcel and got a work order put in. I was kinda hoping they'd get it taken care of before the next line of storms rolled in...on Friday night. I found myself fretting on Friday afternoon about the possibility of tornadoes or our house starting on fire. But I chose to turn it over to God (as best I could!) by speaking His truths out loud: "God, I know that everything that happens to us passes through Your hands—nothing is an accident. I have no control over this, but I trust You—our future is in Your hands!" And He gave me peace. Every time fear started to creep into my mind, I'd pray a similar prayer aloud again.
The cool thing—the storms that went through our area on Friday night amounted to little more than heavy rain! No wind or tornadoes! So I was thanking and praising God over and over!! Just think how much energy I could have wasted (and an opportunity to strengthen my faith) if I had just worried and not chosen to cling to Him! [As a side note, I STILL would have clung to Him and trusted Him if something bad had happened.]
So now it's Saturday afternoon...and the tree limb is still hanging off the garage and pulling on the power line. And it's really quite gusty right now...so I'm hoping nothing gets damaged while we wait... Trust, trust, trust...
P.S. My spell-checker flagged "tornados" and suggested "tornadoes"—like the plural of potato... that looks weird to me...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Peace and quiet
Profound thought of the day: "Peace and quiet" is a rare commodity for a mom.
Moms, I know you KNOW what I'm talking about!! My days are filled—from the crack of dawn until bedtime—with squeals of delight, crying, almost incessant chattering, car/vacuum/blender sound effects, whining, etc.
However, right at this moment I am sitting in utter silence... Ryan is napping while Brandon and Daddy are out on a bike ride... no cars are driving by... no dogs barking... no airplanes flying overhead... and I can feel the tension in my back easing away... ahhhhhh... there's just the sound of the birds chirping... heavenly. :)
Moms, I know you KNOW what I'm talking about!! My days are filled—from the crack of dawn until bedtime—with squeals of delight, crying, almost incessant chattering, car/vacuum/blender sound effects, whining, etc.
However, right at this moment I am sitting in utter silence... Ryan is napping while Brandon and Daddy are out on a bike ride... no cars are driving by... no dogs barking... no airplanes flying overhead... and I can feel the tension in my back easing away... ahhhhhh... there's just the sound of the birds chirping... heavenly. :)
Monday, June 9, 2008
The wise woman
I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!
I don't spend a great deal of time in Proverbs, but whenever I do—wow—do they pack a punch! Not the kind of thing you can just breeze through... you gotta stop and chew on it, and then chew on it some more. Since there are numerous references to listening to and accepting counsel & advice in the book of Proverbs, I would like to hear [read] YOUR thoughts about the following verse I read today...
It's Proverbs 14:1, which says, "A wise woman builds her house; a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands."
MY first thought was about controlling the tongue. Just think how a woman could tear her house (her husband and children) down by cutting everyone to shreds with her sharp words. But by guarding her mouth (with God's help!) she can build up her husband and children by choosing positive and constructive comments, encouragement and praises, and with a kinder tone of voice.
What other thoughts to y'all have?? Please share!!!! :)
I don't spend a great deal of time in Proverbs, but whenever I do—wow—do they pack a punch! Not the kind of thing you can just breeze through... you gotta stop and chew on it, and then chew on it some more. Since there are numerous references to listening to and accepting counsel & advice in the book of Proverbs, I would like to hear [read] YOUR thoughts about the following verse I read today...
It's Proverbs 14:1, which says, "A wise woman builds her house; a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands."
MY first thought was about controlling the tongue. Just think how a woman could tear her house (her husband and children) down by cutting everyone to shreds with her sharp words. But by guarding her mouth (with God's help!) she can build up her husband and children by choosing positive and constructive comments, encouragement and praises, and with a kinder tone of voice.
What other thoughts to y'all have?? Please share!!!! :)
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Birthday blessings
Today I enter the 40th year of my existence on this planet [for those who may be "arithmatically challenged" that means I turned 39]. :) It's amusing to me how different my idea of birthday blessings is now that I'm a mom. Here are the things that have been gifts to me thus far on my birthday (it's 9:30 a.m.) ...
1 - Brandon slept in until 6:10 this morning! [He is usually awake at 5:45.]
2 - The sun is shining! I LOVE sunny days... even if it's 10 degrees below zero... which it's NOT, praise the Lord... but I'm just saying... well anyway...
3 - A little peace & quiet. My husband took Brandon on an errand and the baby is sleeping... so here I am... sipping on a cup of General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe [for those who are around my age and older, "celebrate the moments of your life!"] ...enjoying a little time on the internet, and planning to have some 1:1 time with God immediately after posting this. I even got to paint my toe nails. Yahoo! :)
1 - Brandon slept in until 6:10 this morning! [He is usually awake at 5:45.]
2 - The sun is shining! I LOVE sunny days... even if it's 10 degrees below zero... which it's NOT, praise the Lord... but I'm just saying... well anyway...
3 - A little peace & quiet. My husband took Brandon on an errand and the baby is sleeping... so here I am... sipping on a cup of General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe [for those who are around my age and older, "celebrate the moments of your life!"] ...enjoying a little time on the internet, and planning to have some 1:1 time with God immediately after posting this. I even got to paint my toe nails. Yahoo! :)
Friday, May 16, 2008
Imagination
Kids are cool, ya know? This week Brandon walked up to me with his blue and yellow plastic shovel in hand and said, "Play guitar"—and then proceeded to sing "Praises, to the One who saves us..." while strumming his shovel-guitar! No one showed him how to do that...he came up with it on his own! That kind of amazes me. Kids are so creative!
The other thing Brandon has been pretending to do for a few weeks is cook with the basic recycled plastic lids and containers in his toybox. He pretends he's cooking eggs & sausage, as well as blending up soup using an old plastic thermal mug (and, of course, hums loudly to make the blender noise). I just wanted to run right out and buy him a little kitchen set! But Jon kind of said, "Wait a minute, honey...if he's having fun pretending with the random stuff he has, let's let him use his creativity!" Good idea. Plus, Brandon's birthday is coming up, so maybe.... well.... shhhhh... don't tell him! :)
The other thing Brandon has been pretending to do for a few weeks is cook with the basic recycled plastic lids and containers in his toybox. He pretends he's cooking eggs & sausage, as well as blending up soup using an old plastic thermal mug (and, of course, hums loudly to make the blender noise). I just wanted to run right out and buy him a little kitchen set! But Jon kind of said, "Wait a minute, honey...if he's having fun pretending with the random stuff he has, let's let him use his creativity!" Good idea. Plus, Brandon's birthday is coming up, so maybe.... well.... shhhhh... don't tell him! :)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
New things
I so enjoy observing my kids mastering new things. Like Ryan (my almost-7-month-old) playing with his Nuk... he pulls it out of his mouth and tinkers with it for awhile, then sticks it back in his mouth and has even learned to suck on it upside down (that is, the pacifier is upside down, not him). Or Brandon (my 2-3/4 year old) folding his hands as I work on teaching him to "wait patiently"... ah, if only I could master that myself (waiting patiently that is, not folding my hands)...
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