It's all about Jesus

There was a visiting pastor speaking at our church this past year.  He was talking about the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination and how really they are just simply all about Jesus.  (One of the reasons I LOVE this denomination and my church!!)  But he began to talk about the Bible as a whole, and I think this is a basic teaching about the Bible...it's all about Jesus!  All of the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, the Gospels tell His story, then the letters point back to Jesus.  John Soper, the visiting preacher said it this way:  "God told us what he was going to do, then He did it, then He explained it."  It is a look at the Bible from God's perspective.  Because of where I am in life, I instantly thought about my parenting.  Isn't this the model!  I need to teach (verbally) my children the values I want to instill in them, then model them, then explain my actions.  It is God's model...I'll imitate him and make it my own...surely He knows best!  He is the Good Father after all!
This model also works for discipline.  "Tempie, I am going to put you in time out now...{Time out}....Tempie, do you understand why you were in time out?"  Works the same with spankings or any other form of discipline used.  By the way, I choose the word discipline intentionally over the word punishment.  But this model for discipline is the same God used for His people.  God warned the Israelites many times...stop or you will go into exile...{exile}....Do you understand what just happened?  It's intentional, it's measured, and it's discipline...not anger, or punishment, or even simply consequential.  Discipline is to be so much more.  Discipline comes from the same root word as disciple.  It is to grow a person into who they are made to be.  It is about encouraging growth and change.  Not just about beating a bad habit out.  That's what punishment and consequences are about.  They are about what you are not to do, not about who you are to become.  I believe that having kids is all about making disciples.  It's my reason for having them.  I intend to learn as much as I can from God about how He has made disciples.  Who else has His track record?!

Things I want to remember

There are some things and some moments I want to be sure to record and remember somewhere about the first week of baby Zeke's life.

• The first to come to mind is his first birthday party. Tempie wanted to make him a birthday cake, so that's what she and my mom did while we were in the hospital. They brought the cake up and we had a birthday party for Zeke.  It was a brilliant big sister moment for Tempie!
• I want to remember God's gift of an hour during labor, just before pushing, and how He gave me Psalm 126 & 127.  Zeke is a reward...not sure what for....
• I want to never forget Zeke cooing at us for the first hour of his life.
• Sitting at the kitchen table, by the window, nursing Zeke & watching Bert play outside with Tempie, Ada and JJ.  Beautiful fall leaves, weather, lots of laughter.  I want  to remember JJ's face as he jumped into the leaf pile.  It was a taste of Heaven!!

I may be crazy...

but, I think it's possible that God has given me some insight to the spirit of my children through my pregnancies.  Perhaps somewhat mystic, but who knows.  It's certainly possible. 
When I was pregnant with Tempie, I was so passionate about the poor and about social justice.  All I wanted to do was to minister to the homeless.  And I did give some to that.  I actually got to know my first homeless person.  Her name was Rose.  I lost contact with her.  I have never before and never since had that kind of passion for homelessness.  Not to say I don't care about it now, but it's not the same. 
With JJ it was all about preaching the name of Jesus!  I wanted to shout the name of Jesus from the roof of every building.  Again not to say it's not true now, but the intensity is different.  I did some street evangelism on campus.  That's not something I'm particularly gifted at or often bold enough to do, but I just had to at the time.
With #3 (still yet to be officially named), I'm wondering if this little man may be one who works with his hands.  Not the kind of think I think of when I think of the spirit of a person...at least not till now.  I just can't sit still.  Thinking is not enough for me (usually it can occupy me for hours!), I need to be doing something....making something with my hands.  So far I have built some bookshelves, made curtains and curtain rods, repaired some things around the house like the laundry room doors.  I've never had this type of spirit in me that needs to work with my hands.  At least not to this degree or intensity.  Crocheting a blanket just won't seem to do. 

Who knows really.  Maybe I'm just a crazy pregnant woman, with strange non-food cravings!  Only time will tell if these spirit predictions come to life in my children.  I will try not to feed them into them but rather wait and see what naturally develops.  We shall see...

JJ is 1!

I have spent at least a few minutes every day crying for the past week because my baby boy is ONE!!  There is nothing like having children that makes you understand the finality of time.  You can not stop it or slow it down no matter what.  Once the moments are gone, they're gone.  There's no getting it back.  I've been sort of mourning my baby turning one because I know that he is growing up and changing.  I will never have this baby J.J. again.  I will always have my J.J.  And I truly can't wait to see who he grows up to be.  But right now, he's perfect...no, seriously, he's perfect!  He's the happiest, most snuggly baby I've ever met.  He does have some downfalls, like car traveling and waking up too early, no matter what time he goes to bed.  But when it comes to people, he's a dream!  He knows how to make people happy.  Soon, he'll learn to talk, and learn that he has a will.  He will do things wrong and I will have to discipline him.  Sure, I get on to him now, but he's not openly defiant yet.  Well, he's getting there.  I see hints of it, and that's what makes me sad.  I don't want to discipline this perfect creature.  But alas, the day is coming, and has already come...discipleship at work. 
On the subject of defiance, and wills....have you ever noticed that when you ask a three year old how old they are, they respond "free".  Cutely holding three fingers.  I think those two words get confused...three & free.  Three year olds seem to think they are 'free' (from mom & dad's rule).  Just an observation I had this morning when T told me she was 'free' so she didn't have to do whatever it was I told her to do.
Well, here's some pics of the family as of late.

   

Birthday cake at Grandpa & GiGi's

Many captions could fit this face, but I have a feeling it's one we'll see more of as he gets older and his attitude come out more!

Amazing...one year!

Last pic taken of the four of us together!  True story.  We are having family pics taken tomorrow though!

This is the face we see most often...pure joy!  Love this boy!!

My heart is full

My heart is so full tonight. I have been somewhat perplexed by my emotions today. We traveled home from a week long visit to see family today. I think that this has been the first car ride back from Ga during which I did not have my usual conversation with God.. The conversation typically starts with me considering all the possible scenarios that would get me to move back to Ga. I of course talk through each one with Him and none of them seem to fit. Then God reminds me of all I have in Ky. All that He has given me and how much He has blessed our life here. It is abundantly clear we are where He wants us to be.
Well this time I didn't even begin this conversation. Don't get me wrong, I did cry once we got home. But I realized that my tears were because my heart is too full of love. It has to overflow somehow. I LOVE Georgia, and I LOVE Kentucky. It won't all fit in my heart at once. So on those occasions when I am feeling each of those loves so strongly it will most likely come out in tears. It's the first time I've been able to celebrate homesickness as an abundance of love rather than mourning a loss.

Hmmm what to play with tonight?

Well, we've hit a few milestones this week for both Tempie and JJ.  Tempie is spending the week in Georgia with her grandma and Papa J.  She is very excited and having a good time.  This is her first overnight experience!  Grandma is keeping her busy and they are having fun.  Chucky Cheeze, the zoo, and tomorrow a bounce house place (I forgot the name of it...).  I'm missing her like crazy, but making it through :)  Her Grandma is the best...she sends me several pics throughout the day of all their adventures, and we get to skype each night.  I'm SO blessed!

JJ has taken advantage of the quiet house and started crawling.  Hopefully he can somewhat master it before his sister comes home.  He has also started taking milk from a cup.  This is a VERY exciting milestone to me because up till now he wouldn't take milk from anything but me.  Which makes for a very tired momma!  Now I can leave him for a little while and not worry about him crying the whole time...whew!  JJ has also started pulling up on things.  We are at the stage where he pulls himself up to standing in the bed and can't get himself down, so he just cries.  It's a sad (but somewhat funny) experience.  Hope that doesn't make me a terrible mom...haha.  Here's a pic of him tonight.  He pulled himself up on his toy basket and began emptying all of it's contents onto the floor one by one.  I proceeded to change out his toy basket for one that he can't pull on top of himself.  It was mighty cute to see him doing this though.  What a fun time!  Now comes the real challenge: rebabyproofing my house!  AAHH!!!

Hmmm, what to play with tonight?

I can write my letters!

Yesterday while drawing with chalk outside during jj's nap, tempie draws an E and says "mommy look E". I was so impressed. She's starting to write her letters. We worked on T E O F and A. She's getting there, and super cute while doing it! Here's a pic of what jj was doing too. Not from the same day, but it's cute.