Life as a Toddler

I'm quickly learning that life with a toddler is never very predictable! And I think he may be on the floor more than he is on his feet. Sometimes that means endless hours of playing with his cars, trains, or planes. Sometimes that means flat-out tantrum style (he's a bit of a drama "king" ?). And it definitely means falling down...a LOT!

So the other day, we made it to Kid's Club and we made it 10 minutes when John brought Tanner in gushing blood from his mouth. A kid had bumped into him and he had bitten his lip, although the actual bite mark took me a full 5 mun. to find do to the copious amounts of blood. We made a trip to see the doctor to make sure everything was okay. Two questions:
- Why is it that your child will scream and cry uncontrollably until you pull into the doctor's office, then gleefully walk in and cry when you have to leave the toys. Do they not realize how bad this makes their parents look?
- Second, why is it that when you have a big trip coming up, your kids get hurt or sick? Thankfully his big lip is almost healed and we didn't have anything to do! But the irony of this situation does not go unnoticed since we were at the doctor about 10 days before our trip to England with a gushing wound (that one required stitches!)

Just to top off his already swollen, bruised lip, the next day our graceful little toddler fell down the stairs and whacked his forehead on the wall. Now he is sporting a bruise and knot on his head! Ah Boys! (I was going to get a picture, but alas the camera is already packed! You'll just have to imagine!)

And I have to share one of the sweetest moment I have enjoyed as a Mom to this point . The other morning I came downstairs to be greeted by Tanner running up to me saying "Mommy, I love you!" complete with the biggest hug! Man, I love that kid!

Every blessing

Coming into full-time ministry, I had dreams of being very involved in teaching and discipling, but as a mom one of my biggest ministries is taking care of our two little treasures so John is free to minister. It's a bit different of a picture than what I had pictured being in full-time ministry, but a necessity and truly a joy. But it often means I don't get to build relationships with many of the kids or the conversations I may begin get interrupted as I chase a rambunctious two-year old around the building or soothe a crying baby.
This past week, we helped run a mission, which is similar to Vacation Bible School, at one of local churches. We work at this church every Thursday, helping with their Kid's Club, so we do know a lot of the kids. So we got to go nightly and help! This week I was prepared - three cheers for Veggie Tales and a Baby Bjorn! I could mostly help armed with those two key items! One of my prayers for the week had been to have a chance to talk to one special little girl. She had made a comment about not wanting to hear about God the very first day that just broke my heart and I wanted so badly to share God's love with her. To be honest, I didn't really expect an answer to my prayer, I just couldn't see how I'd have the time to talk to her about the Lord and watch the kids. Oh ME of little faith!
Thursday night she was one of the kids who responded to the gospel, and I was able to share with her about the Lord. The Lord truly blessed me beyond my expectations. I got to talk to her one on one, as well as two other little girls. After that, her cousin started asking me all sorts of questions about God. I was able to talk to him about the Lord and share truth with him. My heart broke when all four told me that they have no Bibles at home.
I share this with you not to boast of myself. The opportunity presented itself easily and while I had been looking for an opportunity to talk especially to this one little girl, I really wasn't fully expecting God's answer - to my shame! But, I'm so humbled that God did allow me to share His amazing love with these kids. I'm so thankful for an opportunity to work at this mission! And I'm so blessed that He does indeed answer prayer! And I'm praising Him that those kids heard the gospel Thursday night!

Valentine's Fun!

It's a few days late, but I had so much fun with Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share! Usually, I don't get too much into Valentine's Day, but this year I thought I'd (cheaply) embrace it just to make it a somewhat special day! Plus we had lunch guests, so we had to make it a little special for them too!
I'm not the most creative person, but I'm great at stealing, I mean borrowing ideas from creative people ;-)
So here's some of our Valentine's Fun!

Centerpiece


Hubby's Valentine ;-) Cheesy I know!



Tanner's "Love Hunt" which I completely forgot to do until yesterday! But he loved it nonetheless! He followed pictures to each room to find his mini coloring book! He was so excited about finding the hearts!


Valentines for friends!

And last but not least - dessert! John's not a huge chocolate fan, but loves white chocolate! And it's super easy! Here's the recipe White Chocolate Mousse.

The Bride

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
Rev. 19:7-9
Think of a bride...no bride fears or lives in oblivion to her wedding day. She counts down the days, the hours, the minutes. It's all she talks about, well that and her hubby to be. She cannot wait until she can spend the rest of her life with her groom, and she's been planning this moment her entire life. Every detail must be perfect and hours upon hours go into preparing for the wedding. No bride forgets to buy a dress, or can't recall the day, comes looking less than her best, forgets to invite her friends and family, or decides to simply show up without any kind of plan.
If we are truly the bride of Christ, then shouldn't we be the same way in looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb and eternity with Christ? Shouldn't we be talking about our future "groom," preparing for that day, dreaming of that day, spending our time and money on that day? And as wonderful as our wedding day was or will be here on earth, this wedding will far surpass it...Through the blood of Christ, we, the church, have become His perfect, blameless, beautiful Bride to enjoy eternity with Him! Let's stop and think on that today and rejoice, hope, anticipate, and dream of that day!

*** My beautiful sister taken by Kristin Partin

No Saying No!

Yes, these words actually came out of my mouth! Another phrase to add to my growing list of things I can't believe I've ever said to my child!

We are certainly NOT parenting experts, in fact, we are pretty new to this whole parenting thing, especially as each day brings new challenges and doubts, and we seem to know less and less. I mean, I've never had a two year old before, and I'm starting to see why they call it the "Terrible Two's." I am forever wondering if I am being too hard, not consistent enough, if I crushed his spirit, if I'm acting out of frustration or anger, did I misread the situation, is there a bigger problem than what I'm seeing and on and on...

Most recently our challenge has been Tanner emphatically telling us "No!" when he doesn't like or want something or when we ask him to do something. It isn't a nice sounding no, although he keeps saying "Nice" as well, equally as hateful sounding I might add! Obviously he's heard the word "no" many times over the last two years of his life, but now comes time to teach him it is not acceptable to tell Mommy and Daddy no. So yes, the other night I said "no, saying no!" We burst out laughing at the absurdity of the statement, parallel to smacking your child's hand for hitting, yelling at him to not yell, or impatiently telling him to be patient, we started to rethink .

God has blessed us with a strong-willed child who goes through great lengths to get his way or have control over situations. Many times we are scrambling to figure out how best to teach him self-control, obedience, and ultimately about God's plan for us. Here's a few things we are learning:
- We need to plan how to handle situations BEFORE they happen (what we are going to say, what discipline course to take, etc.) otherwise we find ourselves reacting more than being intentional and consistent.
- We need to communicate our "plans" with each other. I know this seems logical, but we are constantly forgetting to tell each other how we've handled a particular situation, and then it is confusing
- Sometimes everyone needs a time-out or an alone break!
- What works one day may or may not work the next
- Parenting is WAY harder than it looks before kids! And that sweet innocent, little newborn will talk one day and will not always be the sweetest thing in the world and is FAR from innocent!

But then you get those glimpses of pure sweetness. This morning after a VERY long, tearful, disobedient morning, and being sent to his room, Tanner was much quieter than he should be. He had taken his blanket out of his crib, gotten his paci off the dresser, laid on the floor, and fell asleep! I must say after his 5 min. snooze he was remarkably happy!

What have you learned from parenting?