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?

Fall Fun

I have a confession to make: We are okay with Halloween. Not a scary, blood and guts Halloween, but one where children dress up as their favorite Disney character or who they want to be when they grow up. It is fun for children to pretend and to get free candy! Josh & I both grew up trick-or-treating and never thought of it as an evil holiday. I know that many believers disagree with celebrating Halloween, but we both have thought through it and think that it is harmless in the way we observe it. Are there people who take it to an extreme? Sure. But every holiday can be taken to an extreme. We just view it as a time to have fun with our kids and eat candy!

With that said, Thomas was a train engineer for Halloween and he was so cute! Josiah was himself. He is only four months old and I don't dress my babies up until they are old enough to walk. I don't think he felt deprived because Thomas got to dress up and he didn't! We went to our church's fall festival and then to my in-law's fall festival. Thomas was able to play some games and win a small tractor, which he has not put down since Saturday night!

Below are some pictures of Thomas. After looking through the pictures, I realized we didn't take any pictures of Josiah. Oh, now I remember why: he was sleeping the whole time! I also included some pictures of a little art project I did with Thomas on Friday.

Any of my other readers participate on Saturday? Or do you not agree with Halloween and didn't observe the day?

Cake I made for the cake-walk.

Mother's Day

I just wanted to take a moment and brag on my wonderful husband who despite feeling crummy went out of his way to make me feel special this mother's day. This is what awaited me on mother's day morning:

The balloon is obviously from Thomas and I love it! There is nothing sweeter in the world than being Thomas' mama. The cards are from Thomas & Josiah and then of course Josh. As any of you know who read his blog, he is great with words and his cards always are so meaningful. My gift was what every woman and especially a 9 month pregnant woman wants: pampering!! He bought me a 1/2 hr massage, pedicure, and a mini-facial - woo hoo! I'm hoping to get the pedicure this week because that is the one thing I don't do very well since I have a hard time getting to my toes!

I wished I could upload his mother's day sermon here because it was a wonderful reminder of what biblical mothering is. Josh also said some very sweet, and I think undeserving things, about me that made me cry (along with every other woman in the church!). I'm so thankful for the way he gives to me sacrificially not just on mother's day, but throughout the year. God has truly blessed me with a godly husband and two beautiful boys - my cup runneth over!

Easter 2009

We have had a busy week, but I did want to post a few pictures from this past weekend. On Saturday morning, Thomas went to the Easter Egg Hunt at church. I thought he would "get it" this year, but he is so easily distracted that he didn't seem too interested in picking up the eggs. At first, he tried to put the eggs in another child's basket and then he wanted to play with the toys since we were hunting inside due to the ground being wet. He did pick up a few eggs after much coaxing and praising from us.

Resurrection Sunday was a wonderful day. We had a sunrise service at 7:30am and the regular worship service at 10:30am. It was a great day of worship and I always enjoy hearing Josh preach the Word passionately and boldly! I fixed Easter lunch for us and Josh's parents and then we relaxed and napped in the afternoon.

Below are some pictures from our weekend.

Josh reading the Easter story to the kids.

I'm Not Creative, But....

I had a little help for Valentine's Day in being a little bit creative. On Thursday, I went to Target to find a card and box of "good" chocolate, such as Reese's or Snickers, for Josh. I picked up a card and went to the Valentine's section of the store and found an even better gift: A Scrabble Valentine's!

You may be thinking, "Scrabble is a good Valentine?," and yes, for my husband it is. Josh loves Scrabble. When we play board games he ALWAYS want to play it. He really likes words, but also likes to beat me because I rarely win. I blame it on always getting the bad letters (what can you do with 4 I's), but he reminds me it is all about skill. Anyway...I saw this Valentine and I just had to get it because I knew he would love it.

The Valentine is a game and a card. There are 100 tiles and you can use up to 25 of the tiles to form a message in the card. I wanted all the letters to connect just like a game of Scrabble and amazingly, I was creative enough to make it happen! Here are the results:

The message can read: Josh you have all of my love. Or, Josh you have all of me.

And yes, he was pleasantly surprised and delighted by his Valentine. He was amazed that I made all the words connect! Maybe it means I'm getting better at Scrabble! Oh, and I did get him a box of Reese's too. A gift isn't complete without chocolate for my husband!