Lesson Learned

Yesterday, I rushed around the house picking up the previous night's clothes to have a larger load of laundry to wash. Josh had mentioned to me on Monday that he thought Thomas had crayons in his pockets. Not thinking about that reminder, I put his jeans in the washing machine. He reminded me again when I told him that I was washing clothes that Thomas had crayons in his pockets. AGAIN, I forgot and simply loaded the dryer full of wet clothes. When I opened the dryer door, I remember Josh saying, "I think Thomas has crayons in his pockets," for this is what I saw:

After I removed all the clothes, and saw more black crayon stains, this is what my dryer looked like:

Here is the culprit:

I googled (is that a verb now?) "how to clean crayon out of the dryer" and the answers said to take a damp cloth, spray WD-40 on the cloth, and wipe the inside of the dryer. It worked to get the crayon that was caked on, but most of the stains will not come out. I think the dryer was so warm that it permanently melted black crayon into the drum. Every time I look at the dryer, I will remember to always check Thomas' pockets!

A picture of my sweet boy, who only was warned never to put crayons in his pockets again!

Same or Different?

People who know our family in person think that Josiah looks so much like Thomas as a baby. I decided I would let my blog audience give me your opinion. Below is a picture of Thomas the day he turned 7 months and a picture of Josiah on his 7 month birthday last week. What do you think?
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Cleaning Schedule for Moms

I just found this great website that breaks down daily, weekly, and monthly chores especially designed for moms. Previously, I have tried to follow the Fly Lady's cleaning schedule, but it is very hard to clean the entire house in one day with little one's around. The website is JustMommies Home Organization Plan and I think it will be very helpful to me! If you try it out, let me know what you think.

A Decade of Change

It is amazing to me that the year 2000 was 10 years ago! Josh and I were discussing this phenomena the other day and he said, "You know, this past decade is the first that we have remembered completely." We are both children of the 80's, and our memories of the 80's are almost non-existent, while our memories of the 90's really don't begin until the late 90's (hope I'm not making some of you feel old!). I thought it would be fun to write down all the important things that happened in my life the past 10 years. So here goes...

• Graduated High School (2001).

• Spent a summer in San Antonio, TX, ministering and loving on sweet children (2002).


• Graduated College (2004 - yes, I graduated a year early because I was able to take college credit my senior year of high school - my parents were thankful!).

• Moved alone to Louisville, KY to attend seminary (2004).
• Went on my first (and only, thus far) international mission trip (2005).
  
• Moved to Indiana when Josh and I became engaged (2006).


• Married Josh (2006).

• Moved to South Carolina (2007).


• Sadly, my great-grandfather, grandmother, and great grandmother died within 3 months of each other in the summer of 2007.


• Thomas was born (2007 - 6 weeks before our first anniversary - surprise!).

• I lost my final grandparent, my sweet grandfather, one year and two days after my grandmother died (2008).


• Josiah was born (2009).

As you can see, it has been a decade of much change! Through it all, God has been so good and gracious to me. I look back over the last decade and I'm amazed at the love of my Savior and how He has opened my eyes to understand more of Him and to love Him more. The above events don't tell of all the things the Lord did in my heart over the past decade because it would take the next year to write it all!

On January 13, 2000, I was 16 (almost 17) and a junior in high school. I was beginning to think about college, but really enjoying spending time with my friends while we finished high school! Now, on January 13, 2010, I am 26 (almost 27 - doesn't look nearly as nice as 17!) and enjoying spending my life with Josh while we raise our two beautiful children (and hoping for more). And to think, I didn't even know about the place I live now or Josh Culbertson!

New Year with New Goals

It is the 5th day of January and I'm just now posting things I had hoped to do last week. Oh well, such is life!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Thomas understood much more this year and it was fun seeing him so excited about Christmas. We taught him whose birthday we were celebrating and when we asked him, he would say, "Baby Jesus." Of course, we learned that children don't "perform" as you would like. Example: We were at the retirement home having breakfast with the chaplain and director and we asked Thomas, "Who is Christmas about?" Fully expecting to hear, "Baby Jesus," but instead he said, "Ho, ho, ho!" Yes, we were embarrassed! We aren't anti-Santa, but he knows Christmas is about Jesus.

Our New Year was spent low key with some close friends. If you know me, then you know that I am not a night person. I would be happy going to bed at 9pm every night (if you think that is weird, you should meet my mom. She goes to bed around 8pm and she is young - the big 5-0 this year!). Plus, the kiddos need to get their rest as well. We didn't even stay up to ring in the new year, but it was here when I woke up Friday morning!

One of the goals I had last year was to read through the bible in a year. Through God's grace, I did it! I used D.A. Carson's For The Love of God and loved it, although I didn't complete the plan. Using his plan, which is the M'Cheyne plan, you read the Psalms and New Testament twice and the rest of the bible once. After Josiah was born, it was hard to keep up. Thankfully, I had read through almost all of the NT and half of the Psalms before he came, so I decided to skip reading the NT and Psalms again. There were some weeks I had to read many chapters at one time, but I was at a point in the reading (prophesy and OT history) that it actually flowed well and helped me to see the overall picture of Israel's history and God's grace to them through the prophets warnings and promises of restoration.

My goal this year is the same as last year: read through the bible in a year, but hopefully following M'Cheyne's plan. Last year I used Volume 1 of Carson's book and this year I'm using Volume 2. The only difference is the passage of Scripture he highlights in the devotion. I have already learned and appreciated the book of Ezra more this year than last.

Another goal is to begin doing daily learning activities with Thomas. Here are a few of the resources I am using as I plan our days and activities:

• Children's Learning Activities
• Our Preschool Homeschool Blog
• The Toddler's Busy Book - Trish Kuffner
• Slow & Steady Get Me Ready - June Oberlander

If you know of any more good resources, please share!

A goal that I have every year is to read more. This past year, even with having a baby, I was able to read some excellent books. I should write a short, un-academic, review of them at some point. Here are some of the best books I read last year:

1. Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate - Jerry Bridges (has forever changed the way I view my sin).

2. God is The Gospel - John Piper (given me new eyes to see my Savior and the glorious news).

3. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009 - Greg Wills (Dr. Wills led the mission trip to China in 2005 and he was beginning the research for this book. Outstanding book!).

4. Radical Womanhood - Carolyn McCulley (gave me a deep understanding of the roots of feminism and how we as Christian women can fight it).

There are a few more, but this is all that is coming to mind right now. Do you have any book suggestions for this new year?