5 Weeks

Little guy had his 5 week checkup- 1 month check up today.  He is gaining for his size like a champ- already at 8 lb. 7oz that is 2  lb. more than what he weighed when he was born- definitely my best eater and gainer so far.  I was very thankful.  Way to go little guy!

Holy Week...

 

We are thankful it is Holy Week.  We are celebrating and anticipating but keeping it simple- especially as sleep deprivation has set in and I feel in a fog most of these days.

We planted our resurrection garden and hope to put Jesus on the cross and in the tomb on Good Friday.  And we are putting our symbols up on our road to the cross.

We have also been going through the Resurrection eggs and hiding one a day at lunch time. 

Our verse we have been memorizing maybe for 3 weeks- Psalm 95:3- "The Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods."

And we did manage to dye Easter eggs yesterday as Daddy had a meeting at night with only one spill of one of the dyes. 



 

And if this guy cooperates and sleeps- we are able to do some of these activities.

 

Pansies and Penn Station

 There have been so many blessings come our way over this last month- one week a friend brought me a Penn Station sub for lunch which was a huge treat- I love their subs!  Another evening, a friend and I went out for dinner and she showed up at my door with these pansies- I had actually that week been praying and hoping for some pansies like this- God is good giving us little gifts we don't deserve.

 

 And then there are these 3 munchkins.  Michael preached on Palm Sunday at our church- so I am trying to get more experienced and quicker at getting all 3 of these ones ready for church and out the door on time.  We were planning on not making it for Sunday School- but after Jeremiah requested to go to SS- we were determined to get there and we made it for "most" of it.  :)  Pretty good for this stage right now. :)  Sitting in church with 3 little ones- that was another story.  Thankfully Aunt Becky came to the rescue to help me out. :)  So thankful for people we can ask for help even it is when we are walking in the doors of the church.

Bye Honda!

 

We said "Goodbye" to our Honda this week.  We have fond memories of this car throughout Southern Seminary.  For a few years in our marriage, we only had 1 car.  Our dear friends from Cedarville and at Southern with us gave us this car.  It was such a sweet gift and one we have never forgotten.  As we have gotten our van now, we had to say goodbye to our Honda.  We will never forget the generosity of these friends or how the Lord provided for us through them!

 

Josiah Patrick Lyons- 1 Month Old!

 

 Josiah is 1 month old today already!  He is a sweet calm little guy so far! 

Since we were so busy with Josiah's birth- I wanted to give you a further background of the little guy and how we chose his name.

 

Josiah
"Josiah" is named for two different reasons. First, his name is a Hebrew "Yahwehistic" name, that is, his name includes the divine name of God (Yahweh) in the Bible. In Hebrew it is pronounced Yoshiyahu- Daddy wants to call his nickname- "Yoshi" but the kids have been calling him- Siah.  We desire all of our children to have a Yahwehistic name that reminds them they belong to Yahweh God.

The second reason is that Josiah is named after King Josiah found in 2 Kings 22-23. Josiah was the boy king (8 years old!) and was one of the few kings who led the people to repent and return to Yahweh. He brought religious reform to the land and renewed the right worship of God. 2 Kings 23:25 summarizes his reign this way, "There was no king like him before who had turned back to Yahweh with all his heart and soul and might, according to all the teaching of Moses; and after him no one like him arose." We pray Josiah will be a man who is marked by repentance and leading others to return to Yahweh, the true God.

PatrickJosiah's middle name is Patrick, named for one of our great missionary heroes of the faith, Patrick of Ireland. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the last decades of the 4th century and died somewhere around 461 A.D. It was a time when the Roman empire was declining and soon fell apart. He was born in a wealthy family, but was kidnapped by (pre-)Irish bandits when he was 16. After being enslaved for 6-7 years, Patrick escaped and returned to Britain. At some point later he believed God wanted him to return to Ireland and evangelize the people group who had taken him captive. Despite much pressure from others to resist, Patrick went and never returned to Britain. He suffered great hardship, persecutions, and even personal betrayal--yet Patrick stayed focused on spreading the glory of God to the people of Ireland. What allowed Patrick to persevere? In his Confessions, section 34, he states, "God taught me to trust in him always without hesitation." We pray that our Josiah Patrick will spread the fame of God to the nations no matter what happens, that he too would learn to trust Yahweh God without hesitation.

 

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

 

Josiah's Hymn: 

We have chosen a hymn for each of our children to sing to them at bedtime that also becomes our prayer for them!

 

All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name

All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!

 

Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all!

 

Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all!

 

Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all!

 

 

 



Some Visitors...

 We miss having Mom-Mom here this week.  She read lots of books to the kids and held Josiah a lot!  I think he is going through withdrawal this week as he is not being held much!

 My good friend Sara Fillmann came to visit us with her sweet family last week!

Sarah Brown joined us as well- it was a fun visit with my two sweet friends! 

Wish we all got together more often!

 Sara's sweet kiddos- Eric and Kirsten- they were so sweet with Jeremiah and Lydia.

I think Lydia has found a buddy!  :)

The First Few Weeks...

 A few pictures from Josiah's first few days and few weeks at home with us! 

 Lydia is my little  helper- wanting to hold him and more importantly help change his diaper all the time while she changes her babies diapers.  She is a good little helper! :)

 The boys- wanting to roar- Josiah does not know what to think about this yet. :) 

Those crazy Lyons' boys.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This week is my first week on my own after my mom left.  Yesterday, things were crazy but it went ok and we even managed to get the laundry done and put away.  Today was a little bit crazier.  We went to the Library story time which actually went pretty well and then we wanted to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by going to IHOP to get free pancakes if we wore green.  We all got dressed in our green- we made it there and I nursed Josiah while we waited for a seat.  He then pooped all over his green outfit and me and I tried to change him while we were waiting.  The kids were jumping all over the place.  A dear couple saw us and said "hi" and talked with the kids.  We made it to our seats- the waitress said the pancakes were not free at this particular IHOP- I almost burst into tears but made it ok.  We ordered and Lydia literally cried the whole time we were waiting for our pancakes.  I was hoping to meet a friend to talk a little and she couldn't come which was fine just disappointing.  At some point while we were waiting- that dear little old World War II veteran pushed his little walker and found where I was seated- asked where my husband was and I told him he was at work, then he told me that I was a good little mama and said he was going to pay for my meal!  I literally burst into tears and told him he didn't have to but thank you.  We later found that dear man and his wife and I just thanked them and tried not to cry!  The Lord's kindness was evident today and I am so thankful!  It was just the kindness that I needed on a particularly hard and discouraging day. 

 So maybe the afternoon did not go any better- I didn't nap hardly at all as Josiah was up and Lydia cried and then by the time they settled down, Jeremiah was up- but God's gracious kindness was evident today!

Mother/Son Date Night

So the Thursday night before I was going to deliver Josiah- I took Jeremiah to Chick-fil-A for a Mother/Son Date Knight- the theme was Knights and Castles.  It was perfect timing and we had a lot of fun- little did I know I was going to be delivering the next day.  Jeremiah had a lot of fun and Chick-fil-A even gave us questions to talk about being brave, knights and all kinds of things! 

Sleepy Days...