My True Friend...

A few weeks before Thanksgiving- we went to PA- Michael went to a conference of ETS and SBL down in Baltimore and I opted to go visit my family instead of staying home for 5 days by myself- after all, it was only an hour away from Baltimore. We had a lot of fun- visited with my sister and her husband and I got to get out and do some shopping- what are Grandmas for! One of the highlights of this trip was spending time with truly- my very best friend! This woman is a woman of God and we have been through A LOT together- best friends since 6th grade in our Christian School- this girl reached out to me when I was a timid 6th grader in a new school! She encouraged me to try field hockey in high school- she roomed with me all 4 years in college and then we lived together in a town house together! We had been through highs and lows, joys and tears together and I am so thankful for this sister! I always knew she would be a great wife and mom and so neat to see the Lord using her in those roles with her kids and husband! She is the truest friend I could ever know- a TRUE kindred spirit! I love you Sara Fillmann! So thankful for what the Lord is doing in your life and how you are persevering under trial! I love you friend!

Leaf Fun...

Flashback: Nothing like fun in the leaves!!! This was from a few weeks ago when I raked up a few leaves for the kids for them to jump in- fun times!

Thankful...

Flashback to a few Fall Activities- making leaf placemats to hang up... making turkeys out of pine cones. This year we made a Thankful Tree with Jeremiah's thumb print leaves and wrote on each leaf what we were thankful for each day! We also made turkey card with Jeremiah's hand print and pumpkin chocolate chip bread to give to our neighbors to tell them we were thankful for them! We also had my friend Sarah Brown and her family over to tell us about their trip to Africa and made a thanksgiving dinner. After dinner- Mr. and Mrs. Brown did ALL my dishes- unheard of! And thanks to my friend Christy G.'s blog ideas- I love the peanut butter tree with M & M leaves- Jeremiah loved making that for lunch one day! These are a few of our favorite Fall- Thanksgiving activities.

Friends...

Love these sweet friends! We went to the Children's Museum the other week with some friends and it was such a special time! Jeremiah loves his friend Jack and Lydia- I know loves her friend Audrey!

Thinking...

This weekend, honestly, at times, I felt sad. On Saturday, we went to a funeral for Michael's cousin who was 34 and died of a disease she had struggled with for many years and the last year had suffered greatly! She was young and a medical doctor and so full of dreams. We struggle with questions like "Why did she die so young?" When we returned home, I heard more devastating news that a woman and her two children lost their daddy and husband from a lung disease. She and her sweet kids had been in our music class this last year until they moved to St. Louis for him to be on the list for a lung transplant- he didn't get it in time. I spent last night struggling thinking about this young mom and her two kids and praying God would give them grace and then thinking what would I do in her shoes. And at times like these I can not help but think about hurt and pain and suffering in this world- we know God is in control- He has a plan but some things like this just hurt. We see people suffering and we hurt for them and we say O God, how long... My cousin's funeral had a few songs that were such good reminders- Robin Mark's Song- When It's All Been Said and Done and Chris Tomlin's Song- I will Rise- Jesus has overcome, And the grave is overwhelmed, The victory is won, He is Risen from the Dead... And I will rise when He calls my name, No more sorrow, No more pain. I will rise on eagles' wings, Before my God fall on my knees and Rise. In times like these- we cling to hope in God's Word- Praise God that Jesus has overcome Death! 1 Corinthians 15:55- "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

O Christmas Tree...

Last week after Thanksgiving we went to lovely Home Depot and trekked through aisle upon aisle of trees to find the perfect one that we could "chop" down for Christmas! Needless to say- Jeremiah was having a particularly "meltdownish type day" and so we took a detour by the train track inside to warm up as he kept saying- "It's cold..." Ahh- the joys of tree shopping with a little ones- esp. whiney ones! While my mom would have spent hours on the tree farm trekking up the hill to chop a perfect tree- we settled with Home Depot this year and after looking at only 3 trees- we said- we'll take this one really quick and let's go. At least Lydia was happy! :) I think Jeremiah's highlight- getting to pull the cart with Daddy with the big Christmas tree on it! Oh- the memories!

Lydia- 9 Months...

Lydia is 9 months! Our sweet little girl is getting so big! Lydia is still not moving at 9 months old though I was told by her doctor that she has all the muscle tone to and could at any time. She is attempting to reach for things more and more and often rolls on her stomach though she hates being there for long! She had her first real cold with cough and congestion when we went to my parents and boy did she let us know she was sick! We are glad she is back to smiling again! Lydia lately loves to hold up her hands and go "ahhhh" and shake them. She also loves to put her hands in the air when we say "So Big." Her hair is slowly growing though she is still pretty much bald! She loves to watch anything her big brother does! She loves food which I am so thankful for after a very picky Jeremiah! She even loves green beans- shocker especially because we keep telling Jeremiah they are not all that bad! She is still a peanut- a whopping 16lb. and she is now eating All Bran cereal for fiber like a big girl- we just put it in her applesauce as she is still having some digestion issues! We love our sweet little Lydie!

Our Journey Home...

We made it home from a week long trip to PA last week. Michael was going to Baltimore for the week with some guys from HUC to attend ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature). The kids and I tagged along since Baltimore is only an hour from my parents, we went to visit them. The trip went fairly well until the end- on the way there- the kids did great for the 8 hours. I was on entertainment crew and overall they didn’t sleep that well but they did great. On the way home- Michael and I found ourselves weary and in much need of prayer. The night before we left- Jeremiah and Lydia came down with fevers. You know the boy is sick when we go out to dinner and all he does is sleep at the table- head down on the table. We went out to dinner to celebrate my mom and my brother’s birthday. I had a sleeping boy on one side and a fussy girl in my lap- Lydia also was sick- needless to say I barely got to eat my meal. That night his fever broke and around 1:30am- he was up and going strong- I eventually took him downstairs and we watched Sesame Street for 2 hours while I tried to sleep on the couch. We both praise the Lord for helping us get home riding on little sleep. The kids were tired on the trip and slept a lot as they had colds. After lunch- Jeremiah threw up again in the car all over everything and the car seat- oh my! I week before on Sunday- I stayed home from church and did many loads of when he had the stomach flu! Needless to say- it has been an eventful week and we are glad to be home! A sweet sweet friend- Amy S. brought us dinner Monday night- now that is a true friend and she just warmed my weary heart with her kindness- she even remembered me saying we liked Magnum bars from being in Israel so she went and bought me some- so truly thoughtful! Now we are laying low these past few days and trying to get rid of the germs we have. This is Lydie’s first real cold and I hate to see them both coughing and congested and really sick. Praying these little kids get better soon and so thankful Lydia has done so well for these 9 months!!!

"Jeremiah's Lessons..."

This Fall- I have been trying to be more intentional about doing some "lessons" with Jeremiah- especially on the mornings when we are home- like when Katy is around! These are loosely called "lessons" as the kid is only 2 1/2 but it is neat to see children beginning to learn and wanting to do things with their Mommy! Jeremiah's favorite activity by far is reading- I think we read the same book over and over again (which sometimes gets old- I think his favorite this week is Stellaluna). But we will keep reading to him! Through some encouragement of a mentor friend and some great moms I know- and using some of Christy G.'s ideas too- Christy had to put in a plug for you if you read this- we have been working on mainly numbers and ABCs. And of course- he tends not to remember the letters yet but we are working on it slowly. We are trying to do a letter of the week- I think we are up to letter L and then some weeks we stop and have fall fun days- like painting and carving pumpkins, jumping in leaves, making little turkey crafts for thanksgiving or a thankful tree! It is teaching me to be intentional with Jeremiah while not putting too much pressure on myself right now which is great! Though sometimes I do feel inadequate to teach my kids- I don't feel as smart as say my Ph.D. husband- I pray the Lord would use me for His glory to train these little hearts and minds! Our plan for the day is usually a time of reading our alphabet book- singing the song and having a letter like J- and collecting things that begin with J in our bag. Then we usually read some books that I get from the library that begin with J. Then we sing songs like Jesus Loves Me, I'm in the Lord's and my God is so Big! And sometimes we will do a craft- I particularly liked the J week- with Jello- I found a J cutter and we cut out J out of jello to eat! We also made an igloo for the letter I and for the letter K- we made a crown so Jeremiah could be like a King.