Our life in pictures...

Apron

2012-01-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

No description needed:

Baby 3 at 20 weeks

2012-01-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

We had our ultrasound last week and they said that everything looks great! The baby is measuring right on target size wise which is good, but I'm still hoping to go a bit early so Ian can get the last week of school off. Because he doesn't get enough time off already:) I'm feeling baby kick pretty often now which is one of my favorite things about being pregnant. Here are a couple pictures of us:
Here is baby at my last appointment. Almost 21 weeks.

Here we are at 20 weeks. I really feel like I've popped out a bit more since then so I'll have to remember to take another picture sometime soon. This weekend we're leaving the house a bit more...so maybe I'll put on some normal people clothes:)

Daddy Daughter Dance

2012-01-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Ian and Mary went to a Daddy Daughter dance at the community center. I think I was more excited than them...but they both had a great time! Ian said her favorite parts were riding in the elevator (or elegator as she calls it):

And eating the ice cream at the end of the night:

I hope this can become a fun tradition for them because they are SO adorable all dressed up!

The next day he asked her if she wanted to come lay down and watch football with him. And she did. For about half an hour she just laid there!

I hope she's a daddy's girl because she has a great daddy!

Problems with Homeschooling

2012-01-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Maybe it would be more accurate to say problems I'll encounter with homeschooling...the problems aren't with homeschooling itself. I'm currently reading a book called The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child. I wont say it's a great book, but some things have been helpful. The chapter I'm reading right now is called first year hurdles and there are two specifically that she mentions that I hadn't really thought about:

The first is how defensive I get when people question us. I always saw this as other peoples' problem. They were being critical, insensitive, and ignorant. And that is part of it, but my being defensive isn't helping anything. In the book one woman shared her story and said that she realized that people weren't always out to criticize her (although some were, no doubt), but some people just really wanted to learn about what she was doing. She also pointed out that the way to convince people that you're not a weirdo who lives in a cave and never lets your family out, is not to argue back with someone and be insensitive yourself, but let time and your family's example do the convincing.

The second thing the author pointed out is that you may lose friends. I had never thought about this and I hope and pray that doesn't happen! She pointed out that some people will just plain disagree with you and it will be hard to be around them. Others schedules will change as their kids go off to school and there will just be less time. I noticed this with all my friends when we started having kids and some people went back to work. I hated that my circle of friends shrank then. I have met a lot of new friends since then, but I really don't want to ever just hang out with people who are the same as me!

Luckily for us we have a lot of support. We have a good amount of friends who are homeschooling too. And I think our parents are just so used to us doing everything differently than everyone else that when we told them we were homeschooling they responded, "oh, ok." Our parents are super supportive in terms of providing learning games and aides as gifts and a few of my friends will make us little activities to do as they make their own for their kids. God really provided for us here and I'm so thankful. I guess I just need to put on my big girl panties and learn to deal with some of the obstacles we'll face!

First Birth

2012-01-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Last week I experienced my first birth as a doula. It was such an incredible experience and I'm so glad that I decided to go down this path. Her labor was about 7 hours and I was only with her for the last two. She was standing almost the entire time including when she pushed her little girl out. After that she got the rush of hormones that only those without drugs will experience. It was unreal to see. She was beaming and practically bouncing up and down as she sat on the side of the bed. She couldn't believe that she'd done it and that she had this beautiful little girl! As I left I felt incredibly blessed and satisfied with the experience.

I have to keep in mind that my goal was for her to have a satisfying birth experience and to help her stick to her plan as much as possible. It's easy for me to focus on some of the frustrating things that happened. Like the nurse making the comment, "well, you didn't have an IV so we can't give you pitocin to get your uterus contracting back down." I wanted to say out loud, "well thank God you didn't have time to get the IV in then!" But I refrained. Does the nurse not know that God made the body to have kids and recover? There was no sign of any problem with her uterus contracting down, in fact my client had been wincing every few minutes with the contractions after the birth...so clearly her uterus knew what it was doing without the help of your synthetic drugs. Thank you very much!

OK, I'm down off the soapbox:) I need to keep in mind that hospitals are run on the 'there's a problem and we need to fix it' philosophy. This is a big issue in birth because labor and birth are not problems. They are natural occurrences which, left to themselves, will go along quite well most of the time. I wish hospitals would operate on the, 'we're here if you need us and we'll leave you alone otherwise' principle. I think interventions are fabulous when they are necessary! Life saving! But to just shove them down each and every woman's throat and then judge the ones who wont comply is really frustrating. There were a couple other comments made by nurses but I wont share them here. The hardest part for me was seeing a woman who just gave birth be SO ecstatic and then have nurses make these cutting remarks. Everything went well! Everyone was healthy! And the mom could get up and walk around to tell you about it! I don't know what they had to complain about.

I will keep this in mind as I prepare for my next births. This is why being educated about the things that are happening to us and in us is so important! Don't let them get you down girls!

Vaccines

2012-01-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been bombarded with lots of information from both sides of the spectrum on disease and illness. We've been seeing a chiropractor for Noah and they are anti everything medical. No vaccines. No surgery (for things like ear infections, tonsillitis, and other common childhood illnesses). No routine antibiotics. And then of course you have the medical side of things. With Mary we were immediately referred to an ENT (a surgeon) when her ears weren't getting better and her tonsils were the size of golf balls. No discussion of seeing a holistic doctor, chiro, or herbalist. We went to the ENT because we didn't know what else to do and we wanted her to get better. I don't regret our decisions with her. We prayed and prayed and I believe God let us experience that for her health and also for our education. Those things helped her tremendously. But they were extremely expensive and now I wonder if there was a less invasive way to solve her problems.

The chiropractor has really been helping Noah. His ear problems went away and he's even been sleeping better (if you can believe it). The doctor (of chiropractic) sent us a slide show that has all this information about vaccines, ear infections, ADHD, asthma, etc. The common childhood concerns. It has been very informative and eye opening. But my degree is in statistics. I'm glad I have that background because I can look at this slide show and see some things that make me cautious about how quickly I accept this information. I love hearing this side of things, but I also want it to be balanced. As a doula I've seen (but mostly just read about) some of what goes on in the medical arena so I'm also weary when I read their side of things.

I mostly made this post so I could share about this book pictured to the left. The author is obviously a doctor so he recommends all of the vaccines be given to your child. But he also gives a very real and honest look at the problems vaccines can cause. I think he is very fair. For each vaccine he gives what the disease is, how it is transmitted, if it is serious, how the vaccine is made, side effects of the vaccine, why you should give it to your child, and why some parents choose not to give it to their child. I found this book so VERY helpful and informative and mostly unbiased. He genuinely seems to care for these parents who don't vaccinate their kids. A lot of doctors will judge the crap out of you for not vaccinating your kids or skipping some like us. But Dr. Sears does not do that. He really understands and respects some parents for choosing to skip some or all vaccines.

Luckily I found a couple doctors in our group of peds who are supportive of me. Or at least, when I turn down a vaccine they just say, "OK! You'll have to sign this paper." And that's it. The first ped we saw was super judgmental and even talked me into a couple things I didn't want (giving Mary some formula and her first vaccine). After I left I decided I would not see her again and if I did for a sick visit I would go in with my mind set and not let her talk me into anything else. I also use the excuse, "This is something my husband and i already decided and I wouldn't feel comfortable reversing that decision without first discussing it with him." Works like a charm...unless he's there:)

New bed

2012-01-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

Mary is finally in a real big girl bed and she LOVES it. Noah loves it too. The first night we had it up they sat on it for about 30 minutes before bed time and played. We told Mary that sometime soon we were going to turn her other bed back into a crib and Noah was going to sleep in it. She was super excited then and wanted him to sleep in her room that night. We're not quite ready to make that leap yet though...

I don't know why his shirt is off in that picture. I was probably trying to get him changed into pj's when he saw the new bed and ran away! Also, we had our first real snow the other day. It was maybe .25-.5 inch but that's all it took to get Mary excited for snow.

Aprons

2012-01-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Mary and I got matching aprons for Christmas. Mine says "head cook" and Mary's says "mom's helper". Mary doesn't really like wearing hers yet, because she hates things being around her neck...but I know some day she will like to wear it!I finally got her to pose and smile

Christmas

2012-01-02T07:11:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been over a week since Christmas but I finally got my pictures on my computer! The kids were, of course, spoiled this year and Ian and I got a lot of great gifts too. One of my favorite moments was when we sang happy birthday to Jesus in front of a birthday cake I made for him. We brought it to my mom's family Christmas (about 40 people) and I thought just a few of us would sing...but everyone sang! It was awesome and Mary loved it. She did ask where the baby was and why God wasn't there. Ah...she will understand some day.

Here are the kids bugging grandpa tommy after he went to use the bathroom. They do this at home too...
Cutie pies:)
My babies and Brooklynn posing with their gifts on Christmas morning
Yes...we made Noah wear these shoes all day. They were super cute!
And this is at my family Christmas. It was around 8 PM by this time and can you tell that my kids were being themselves at this moment??? Mary is playing with my cousin's cell phone after she had just done some laps around the room and Noah is going to sleep in the middle of the floor. My aunt was kind enough to rub his back for him. It was really cute. When she stopped he looked up at her with the saddest face!

half way there and learning toys!

2011-12-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post a little update on how school is going for us. In short, we love it! Yesterday as we were driving around with a friend, he and Ian were talking about how when they would miss a day of school even for a doctors visit it was so cool to them. They would think, 'wow! Is this what people do during the day??' It was surreal to them that life went on outside the school building. I remember thinking things like that too! One of the positive things about homeschooling is that my kids will always know that there is life beyond school. And they will have practice every day learning how to live the way they will some day when they make families/lives of their own. This is an aspect of homeschooling that I expected, but there have been a few positives recently that I did not expect.

The main one is the freedom that it brings! I've always tried to maintain a decent sleeping routine for my kids. I like them to be well rested:) So it's nice to not have something else during the week that we have to be at. I really like just being able to take each day at a time. If we're feeling tired or cranky or sick we can just hang out and do nothing that day. Or if we're really needing some friend time we can schedule a play date. Then we can do some letter activity or readings later in the day. Another thing is how little time it takes. I have seen her learn so much in the past few months and we really only spend about 20 concentrated minutes 4-5 days a week on learning activities. Although, to be fair, a lot of her toys and tv shows and computer times are probably also learning time too!

Those are just a couple things we love. I am loving homeschooling and have been so grateful for the way it fits with our family. God lead us here and it's cool to see how he's provided. I thought I would share a couple things Mary got for Christmas that I've really loved so far for homeschooling:
The LeapFrog Tag Reading system. This thing is awesome. It reads words individually or it will read the whole page. It is easy to figure out, even for a 3 year old. And there are some pages that have little games on them. She will sit and play with it for close to an hour. It is a great activity for the time between when Noah's nap starts and when hers does. That way I can get some stuff done too!

Crayola's Dry Erase Activity Center. This is my second most loved gift. She isn't great at writing yet, but I know she will get there some day and this thing means I don't have to laminate pages to make them dry erase-able! She is mostly doing pre-writing stuff like tracing lines and connect the dots. You just slide your paper underneath the glass/plastic part and then you can write. So awesome.

This is Melissa and Doug's pattern blocks and boards and you can't really go wrong with that. I love this because we don't have much in the way of patterns and spacial reasoning skills. This fits the bill! She also is getting better at doing jig saw puzzles so that works too. This set helps us work on shapes and colors. Although she already knows all of these shapes and colors it's a good way to review.

Around the house

2011-12-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

I used to take pictures all the time just while we were hanging around the house. If one of the kids did something cute I would grab the camera and beg them to do it again. Maybe I just got bored of waiting...I don't know. But I decided I want to start capturing some "boring" moments around the house again. Lately they really like to sit in this chair together:
One day last week Noah woke up really early from his nap and I wasn't quite ready to give up my free time of watching Parks and Rec and crocheting. So I grabbed him a snack and had him sit on my bed with me. He was super happy about that so I had to grab the camera and capture the cuteness:
Enjoying the chair, and each other:
Thanks to a present from our kids team at church we spent one morning building a gingerbread train! Mary had lots of fun eating the candy, and I had fun building.

Hide and Seek

2011-12-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

Here is how awesome Mary is at hide and seek:

Not only does she say, "I'm right here!" But she also likes to tell you what room she will hide in before she goes to hide. And we now take Noah to hide too otherwise he will stand right next to wherever the others are hiding and point.

17 months

2011-12-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

Noah is 17 months old! It's kind of hard to believe. We have just started really working with him on a couple things like coming to us when we call him, looking at us when we say his name, and staying where we put him. He's doing pretty well with these things, but he also likes to laugh and run away:) He is putting words together now and talking so well. Today he said his longest sentence yet of, "Vacuum on mommy!" Yes, he still loves vacuums and brooms. The way he says vacuum is super cute too. It sounds like daaacuum. He is still a champion eater and sleeper. He's had some ear troubles in the past couple months but I think right now he's ok. It's hard to tell with a toddler. We've been trying some home remedies which I think are going well!

Hello ladies...

He has a love-love relationship with Mary. As in he loves her and she loves him. He LOVES chasing her around. Sometimes she will go get blankets for each of them and then they will run around the house dragging their blankets. He wakes up asking for her (well, after he says mommy eat!). He never wants to go into alone time because he just wants to play with her. He will say Mary randomly in alone time. She loves to give him kisses and look after him. He kept dropping his toys today after breakfast and in her usual fashion she was picking them up for him. Finally I told her not to pick them up any more and that if he dropped them he would just have to sit without a toy. This was very distressing for her because he of course dropped his toys right away. She asked me to please pick them up for him, but I reminded her that he is not supposed to drop his toys and if we keep picking them up for him he will keep dropping them. She didn't really care for that answer, but I think she understood.
Another cute story happened today. He was super whiny after his morning nap so I put him back in his crib and told him I'd be back when he was happy. Mary came upstairs and asked where Noah was and I said he was getting happy. She said he sounded happy and asked if she could go get him. I told her she could not go into his room, as she was already headed back there, because I wanted him to stay happy before I got him. I went back to fixing lunch, but I could hear her in the back so I figured she went in even though I told her not to. When I walked back I saw that she was standing right outside the door whispering through the crack, "Noah come on, get happy so you can come play with me." SO CUTE! I told her to go on in because I was about to cry over the cuteness.
Here is a pretty typical scene. Noah being pushed in the swing and Mary stopping him for a kiss on the head:

And finally, Mary really wanted me to take a picture of her today while I was trying to get some of Noah. So here's the best we got:

The rest of brown county

2011-12-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures that really captured what we did: relax! We found this pottery studio off this country lane back by our cabin so we went to visit. They couple that owned it was super friendly. We talked for a bit and bought some pottery from them. It was really just a perfect fit for us. We love the outdoors, and my mom and I love pottery:) We met Bob, the friendly neighborhood dog. He took walks with us almost daily and the kids called him bobbers (well Ian did, but then the kids started calling him that too)

We played outside a lot:

And lastly, we played with toys:

Blankets

2011-12-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

Noah is all about blankets lately. He wants them on his head and he wants to walk around. If it falls off he flips out and says, "on mommy!!!" Until I put it on...

Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day was a great one this year. We sat around, took a really long walk in the morning, cooked, and ate. And we had turkey! Usually we go to my dad's for thanksgiving and we have themed thanksgivings. This year's theme was New Orleans, to give you an idea of the themes:) So we don't usually get the standard thanksgiving foods. Here are a couple pics:

If the kids could articulate this thought they would ask why the grown ups are messing around and when they get to eat!

Vacation

2011-12-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

We went to Brown County Indiana for a few days over thanksgiving and it was amazing! Such a relaxing and enjoyable few days:) Since I don't have pictures on my computer yet I will post a couple videos. Noah kept doing this thing where he'd put his mouth up on the couch...It's weird, but funny:

We spent a lot of time around the cabin just enjoying some time to relax and taking walks. Here is something Noah found amusing during the times we were all just laying around:

And finally, here is a video of what the kids have been doing a ton lately. Mostly right before bed time. I don't get it, but they seem to think that's the time to chase each other, and everyone else, around the house:

Scans

2011-11-26T04:13:00.000-08:00

Here are two of the pictures I got at my last appointment, which was at 13 weeks. Profile shot:

And here is a front shot. It seems pretty clear to me, but my mom couldn't figure it out, so good luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T04:04:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, we have a little thanksgiving treat for you:

Next May our lives will go from a little crazy to pure chaos:) Going from one to two kids made our lives exponentially crazier. Not just like adding a little to the m ix, but seriously throwing a loop. I've heard going from two to three is a little easier than that though so I'll get back to you on that!

We're super excited to add to the Lubbers family! Ultrasound pictures to come soon!

Habakkuk

2011-11-22T06:39:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Habakkuk lately. I read it a long time ago and thought it was really boring...but now I think it's awesome! I've been listening to Matt Chandler's sermons along with my reading and they have been so good, so I highly recommend that series which you can find here.

One thing that I've really liked is the Discipline or Wrath talk. It's affected me in two ways: as a daughter of God and as a mom. Chandler says all the time that when bad things happen to him it is not God's wrath. He had brain cancer and is always told that it could come back at any time, so he isn't talking as one who has never suffered. During this current season of my life I feel like we've been suffering a bit. Sickness, worries, etc. have been hard. It's easy to say, well at least we don't have brain cancer, but Chandler even points out that suffering is suffering and it can be good to know that it could always be worse, but it's still suffering in your life for today. What I took from this series is that God has a vision for my future and that means that pressure may need to be applied today so that I can grow into who He wants me to be.

That is how Chandler defines discipline: a vision for the future that enacts things today. And that is always how I've thought of it with my kids. How can I spank Mary for the smallest disobedience even though I don't like doing it? How can I stick to my guns with Noah when I've told him to do something, even if it might not seem like a big deal to others? Because I have a vision for their future. My vision is that one day they would be SLAVES of Christ and live for the glory of God. One day when God tells them to jump, I want them to immediately respond, "How high???" They shouldn't need to hesitate or waver because they've come to trust their heavenly father. One day they will have wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord. And to me that means that they hold our God in such high esteem and admire Him so much that they would be terrified to do anything against Him. They wouldn't want to be outside His will because they love Him so much and more importantly they recognize His incredible love for them. This is my vision for their future, so it gives me the motivation to continue on with disciplining (training, teaching, etc.) them.

Now when I apply this back to myself it is so helpful in this time. God has a vision for my future. So if I get no sleep tonight because Noah has a toothache and can't sleep either, then I'm cranky the whole next day even though I've been PRAYING for God to remove this pain from him (mostly so I can get sleep)... I wont see that as God's punishment (wrath) on me. I know that God has a plan for me and I want to trust that what I'm going through is going to facilitate that plan.

Family Pics

2011-11-21T03:59:00.000-08:00

Well the day we had planned for family pictures turned out to be kind of a bust. Rainy, but not super cold so that was nice! We ended up at the covered shelter at harbin park which worked out well. I got a couple pictures of the kiddos:

He looks like such a man in that picture. Until you see him in the background of the next picture clutching his baby doll. And to be honest, Ian took the baby doll away and gave him the stick instead:)

And after much photoshopping we have a picture of everyone smiling! Well, besides Noah, but he literally didn't smile the entire time. He just kept saying, "down!"

Sickness

2011-11-07T07:27:00.001-08:00

Everyone has been sick around here. I'm going on 3 weeks but today I feel slightly better than yesterday, so maybe I'm over the hump. Mary and Noah both had pink eye and ear infections, but they are looking much better now on their 4th day of antibiotics.

It's been about a month and a half of sickness, so it's easy for me to complain and whine in my head. Which always slaps me in the face because I'm constantly telling Mary that we need to do everything without whining or complaining. Anyway, instead of complain about it (more than I just did), I'd like to say what's been awesome about being sick...

1. I watched all the Harry Potter movies again in preparation for this Friday when the last one comes out!

2. While doing that I finally finished Mary's blanket (that I started in June). I promise it's not because I'm lazy. This blanket is the most time consuming project I've ever done. And I used the most time consuming stitch to put all the squares together. I'm hoping that it will last a long time and some day when I teach her to crochet she will really appreciate this blanket!

3. The kids both sleep more when they're sick. That is a plus because I've been sick at the same time so it means I get to sleep more too:)

4. I've cleaned the entire house top to bottom. Yesterday and today I've sanitized everything I can. I've been meaning to do that for a while but it just hasn't happened. The pediatrician gave me another good idea for limiting germs in our house: switching out hand towels daily. I don't have enough bathroom towels to do that...maybe once a week. But I have lots of kitchen towels so I've been switching them everyday.

That's my list. There are things to be thankful for in sickness:)

halloween

2011-11-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here it is folks.

Playdough

2011-10-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

The kids are really into playdough lately. Just thought I would share a cute interaction. I gave Mary some playdough and went into the other room. I then heard Ian yell in disbelief: "Megan, I gave Noah some playdough and he ate it!"

My response was, "Well, what did you think he would do with it?" And Ian said, "Build something."

Haha. I think I responded with something like, "So you thought you'd turn back around and see the taj mahal??" I thought it was cute that Ian really though Noah would just put something together! Since then we've worked with Noah on NOT eating the play dough and he now likes to smoosh it into the containers we take it out of. I still don't turn my back on him though:)

14 months

2011-10-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind seeing as how Noah is 15 months now. But here are some 14 month pictures of him that will go in his book:

And here is a picture of how I found him when I went to get him from his nap the other day.

He's been randomly getting his feet caught in the crib, but it's usually between the wall and the crib. He is funny.

mommy take a picture!

2011-10-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

I was in the kitchen the other day making lunch and I heard Mary yelling, "Mommy come take a picture of us!!" No need to think twice. I grabbed the camera and this is what I found:
This is usually how it goes. Mary is smothering him with love and he takes it. Although today he walked up to her and held his arms out for a hug:)

More wedding fun

2011-10-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

This wedding actually happened last month, but I just got pictures from the photographer. Although I had my camera in the bag I only took one picture. It's a good thing the photographer was a friend of mine! Here is my sweet princess wearing her borrowed dress and hair clip I made for her. Have I mentioned I'm cheap??

Mary and the handsome little ring bearer (who happens to be one of her BFF's)

Yes, I put lip gloss on my daughter. She saw me putting some on and asked for it. I can't say no to those big beautiful blue eyes:)
Here she is with the wonderful bride who loves her so much

Wedding

2011-10-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Ian's sister got married a couple weekends ago. It was a really fun weekend! Mostly because grandma and grandpa watched the kids so it was very relaxing. Plus, we got hooked up with a free hotel room at the Westin downtown! For any of you people watchers out there, that is the place to go. Our window faced fountain square so we got to witness the protest and all the festivities of the night. Here are a couple pictures from the wedding...
Noah getting tickled by grandpa Hank:

Oh, guess who found the smallest little gap in the wall and tried to squeeze into it???

Yeah, he still does that. Here are some fun family pics

New wall decal

2011-10-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

I finished up this thing for Ian's office a few weeks ago. We got the decal at a very reasonable price from this shop on etsy. Very happy with how it turned out:

This picture is exemplifying Mary's personality lately. She's been super fun:)

Spoon

2011-10-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Noah's getting a little better...just a little

He's thinking 'mom it's too early for flash'

I have cute kids

2011-10-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

I know at least grandmas and grandpas will agree!

dancing

2011-10-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

So apparently I got bored with writing those fruits posts. I guess my whole point in them is that I want parenting to be a topic of discussion. It's easy to just see it as too hot a topic and when we disagree or do things differently we just don't talk about parenting at all. That is sad to me. I love it when people ask me why I do things the way I do. I love asking others why and how they do certain things. Do I get frustrated and offended sometimes? Of course. But I think it's most important to have grace and love with each other and to help each other when we can. I think our kids benefit when we learn from the skills and differences of others.

Moving on...Mary has been big on dancing lately after breakfast. She always says very excitedly, "DANCE WITH ME MOMMY!" Who could say no to that?? We danced:) Then I got Noah out of his chair and Mary said, "Mommy I think he wants to dance too!" I don't know if him running out of the room to find a toy sent her that message or what...but that's what she thought. So they danced:

Fruits of the spirit - love

2011-09-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

So this is going to be totally random because my thoughts on this topic are completely random. I'd also love more insight on training our kids how to love. Like really love, not just emotional up and down love.

One thing I want to figure out more is sharing and arguing over a toy. If there is ever a disagreement I always tell Mary to let the other person have the toy. I don't think Jesus was "fair" in this respect as we like to think of fairness. I mean, we do the whole take turns thing sometimes. But I want to teach Mary that love means service. Love means sacrifice. And toys are such an applicable thing to a 3 year old. Even if she was already playing with the toy, it will show love to the other person and speak more than words if she gives it up. At first I thought, well this could be a crazy cycle, "Mary, Noah wants the toy so give it to him. Noah, Mary wants the toy so give it to her!" But it hasn't really played out that way. I will usually just call Mary over and tell her that one way she can show love to ______ is to give up the toy. I think we see all over scripture how those who want to lead need to serve. But I haven't really figured that out completely in this area. I don't have a "plan" which is so unlike me:) But that's kind of where I am right now.

We have people over for dinner a lot. Multiple times a week and usually once a week it's a large group. One thing I have Mary do is help serve the people who come. Tonight I had her pass out the dessert. Every time she came back she said, "Mommy I want some!!" But I told her she needed to wait until everyone else had some. It could have been a more teachable moment but it slipped by. We can love others by putting them first.

I also teach the kids to clean up! This falls under love for sure in my mind. It shows others that you respect their time. You love them enough to not leave a mess behind you that they will have to clean up. Since both of my kids could pick things up they've been cleaning up after themselves. Especially with Noah this is a long process, but I think it's worth it. Not for the sake of having a clean house, but for showing others that you care.

Those are a couple ways we teach love. In all these things I talk about we also model love! One thing I love about GKGW is their emphasis on the marriage relationship being priority in a home. For me, my priorities are God, Ian, then the kids. I think in our culture it's perfectly acceptable that once you have kids they take over in your heart and priorities. That's not how God created it to be. Ian and I make sure the kids see us communicating each day. They see how we interact. And they also know that when mommy and daddy are talking you don't interrupt (not that they never do...). They need to know, once again, that they are not the center of the universe. God is. He placed an order in the family and the kids are not the top dogs!

Again, other tips are welcome!

Fruits of the spirit - patience

2011-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

I only have a few things to say on teaching patience and none of them are mind blowing, but here goes:

If I'm in the middle of doing something and one of the kids wants something I don't stop what I'm doing to take care of their needs immediately (unless they are immediate needs like when Mary got her foot stuck in the play set and was dangling upside down from it - major awesome mom moment). Usually I will tell them to wait until I'm done washing the dishes, cleaning pee off the toilet, or taking clothes back to their room and then I will help them. Especially if I'm in the middle of talking to someone, I will rarely interrupt the conversation more than telling the kids that I'm talking and they have to wait. This may seem selfish, and maybe it is. But I think it's not really about me. The world doesn't stop when we have needs. I want my kids to learn that early.

I think alone time teaches patience. I've talked about that on here before. I think it teaches patience because sometimes I will hear Mary asking me to come help her and I will tell her I'll come help after alone time. Usually it's that she can't get a leggo piece in right.

I think one way the opposite of patience rears it's ugly head is in tantrums. They throw tantrums for other reasons too, but I notice when things don't happen right away, or the way they want them, tantrums are more probable. My goal with that has always been that whenever my kids whine or throw tantrums they NEVER get their way. That's something I've been super diligent about. I always tell Mary to remember Philippians 2:14, "Do everything without whining or complaining". So if she whines, she automatically does not get what she wants. If she tantrums, she gets to go sit in a room by herself on her bed until she calms down.

Honestly that's about it! I'd love to hear others thoughts on teaching patience! And I know you are out there blog readers! You don't have to leave all the comments to my mom:)

Fruits of the spirit - last self control post!

2011-09-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

This post is about "stop", signing, and I'm going to add in quiet time.

The way we teach our kids to "stop" is pretty simple. We will use it throughout the day. So if Noah is headed toward the street I will say "Noah! (wait for him to look) stop!" He usually stops when he looks at me. But if he doesn't I will go to him and stop him and say, "mommy said stop. That means don't move your feet" and I will hold his feet still on the ground to show him.

But we also play stop and go sometimes. Especially with Mary because she gets it. And I will have her sit and tell me to stop and go sometimes too. With Noah I plan to hold his hand to play stop and go until he understands the word stop better. Learning this command has literally been life saving at times.

Another thing that has been life saving and has to do with self control is we taught Mary to put her hand on the car when she gets out. She has to keep her hand on the car until we tell her she can take it off. Once I remember opening her car door for her in a parking lot and I went over to get Noah. I told her to follow me but I guess she didn't hear me. I was terrified when I turned around and she wasn't there, but when I ran back to her side of the car she was standing there with her hand on the car.

We teach our kids a few signs: eat, all done, help, please, and more. Noah (14 months) has most of these down except help. He usually just signs please if he wants something, which I'm fine with. I teach them the signs by doing them myself, and then by taking their hands and doing the sign for them. At this point, I require Noah to say please, or he doesn't get what he wants. Because I know that he knows the sign. But before I was sure he knew it I would tell him to do it, then just take his hands and do it for him.

I decided to add quiet time to the self control posts (although I guess it could go with peace too) because it is control of the mouth and body. We have quiet time a couple times a week with Mary. I think we started it when she was about 2.5, but we really could have started earlier. I tell her to sit and I usually read to her or give her books. Then I tell her that she may not make noise (with her mouth or body) until my phone alarm goes off. At first I would just remind her not to make noise, until she knew what it meant. Then she would get one little switch on her leg for making noise. Now I hardly have problems with it at all.

Remember my post from a bit ago about trying to honor Mary's words??? Well the other day in the car was seriously getting overwhelming: "mommy, mommy, mommy, did you see the bus?!?! mommy, mommy, mommy, we watch word world when we get home??? mommy, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!" So I told her that I loved her questions, but we were going to have quiet time until my phone alarm went off. She did really good and my mind was saved. Praise Jesus.

Little Man!

2011-09-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

I love sleepers!! And I love cuddly babies!

Are you interested in birth?

2011-09-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

Probably not, but if so there is a new website called oneworldbirth that is awesome! Wanted to share the link to one video I specifically liked:

http://www.oneworldbirth.net/videos/the-solution/what-is-the-solution/

Fruits of the spirit - "stay" and "come"

2011-09-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have some great ideas on how to teach children to stay put. I haven't done them all, but I've done most.

The first is to have a regular play time in an enclosed (smallish) room and leave the door open. This is the way I taught Mary (starting around 12 months). Each morning after breakfast we would go play in her room and I would tell her that we were going to stay in her room. Anytime she left the room I would say, "Mary come back, we are staying in here!" And I would physically move her back into the room and say again, "we are staying in here". Repeat as necessary:) Once I knew that she understood what "stay" meant, any time she disobeyed she would get a mommy hold time out. This is where I pin her arms and legs down to her sides with my arms and legs and hold her in my lap (1 min for each year). Now that we spank we just do that. I think she is grateful we read about spanking. She sincerely HATED the mommy hold time out. It worked though!

I have found that method a little difficult with Noah because it's a longer period each day and it's hard when I'm trying to teach him something and Mary wants to do it too. So with him I have been trying to be consistent with blanket time. I learned it through toddlerwise and mom's notes, but I was determined to do it because the Duggars do! I set out a blanket with one toy on it. Put baby boy on there and tell him to stay sitting on the blanket until my phone goes off (I wave my phone at him). He didn't really get it at first so it took a lot of repetition, but he gets it now. I still only set my phone for about 6-7 minutes and want to work up to 10-15. I will have to remind him 2-3 times still to stay on his blanket, but we only do it 2-3 times a week. I want to get up to 4-5 times a week so it can be more consistent.

Another idea is to have your child sit in a chair with books. It has to be a chair that they have the ability to get out of though...or it's not really teaching them to stay. Mary does this on her bed before sleep. I had to think of some way to get that kid to CALM DOWN. And it's also helping her to like books!

And finally we will play "stop and go" which I'll talk more about later in the "stop" post. But when I say "stop" sometimes I'll tell her not to move her feet and then I'll walk away. So basically teaching her further to stay put!

And as for "come to mommy": I have a post on that here:
http://thelubbersfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/come-to-mommy.html

Fruits of the spirit - don't touch!

2011-09-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

At church we got these stickers that are shaped like fruit and each one has a fruit of the spirit on it. Well Mary got them...not me. I thought they were so cute! But it also occurred to me that she is just now getting to the age where she is starting to understand those words and their meanings. But we have been teaching her those concepts since she could crawl!

I thought I would post a few things I've learned about these fruits in my kids lives. I read A LOT and I'm part of some online communities where I learn about parenting and I'm friends with some really great parents. It's taken me a while to learn these things, so I figured I would share them and maybe help some people save some time:)

The first thing I wanted to talk about was self-control. I think this is one of the first things our kids can really learn and grasp well. A couple things we teach very early are:

1. "Don't touch"
2. "Stay"
3. "Come to mommy"
4. "Stop"
5. Sign language

I'll probably break this up, but I'll start with don't touch. I'm not a fan of babyproofing. You will rarely see me move something my kid isn't supposed to touch. Unless I would cry if they broke it:) Which isn't much... I've even asked grandma to put things back that she moved. If Noah approaches something he shouldn't touch, let's say an off limits drawer, I sit down next to him and wait until he touches it, then I say "do not touch" and move his hand away. I will continue to do this repeatedly until he looses interest. If he approaches it again, the first time I tell him "do not touch" and move his hand away. If he reaches for it again he gets a hand flick and I move his hand away. And repeat. I also try to divert his attention to something he CAN touch, but not every time he reaches for the offending object.

Most people would probably think it's easier to move the offending object or put a child lock on it. And it may be for a while...but what about when they are tall enough to reach the object, or when they learn to open that lock, or worse yet when you are at someone else's house? I would rather fight the battle at the onset, rather than wage an all out war when they're 3. At Noah's age he probably obeys this command 50% of the time (meaning he stops right away) when I say the words. The other 50% get hand flicks because I know that he knows what it means now. Mary was about 18 months when we ceased having problems with this. Not that she never touches anything she shouldn't. Somethings she doesn't know and others she is testing me. But it is very rare that we have to remind her.

I don't say that to brag. If you've been around my kids for about 5 minutes you know that they are not perfect. But I say that to give hope! You can (and should) teach your kids what they can and can't touch. It's much better than not teaching them, then getting mad when they break something.

Another great tip I've heard, but never really employed, is the one finger rule. The child is allowed to touch certain items with one finger:) That way the seemingly irresistible urge to touch is satisfied, but they don't chuck your Christmas ornament across the room.

playing together

2011-09-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

Against my better judgement I went and grabbed the video camera instead of asking Ian to close the curtain on the splashing children. Too cute to miss:

This one is long, but I thought it was so cute. Mary always wants to go into Noah's crib when he wakes up. So I put her in and went to start getting lunch ready. I heard them making similar noises and then cracking up, so I grabbed the camera and went to see what was up. They start making the noises again a little after the 1 minute mark.

To brighten your day...

2011-09-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

I can never get enough:

Talking

2011-09-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

Mary talks a lot now. I mean A LOT. She asks questions almost constantly. And the same ones over and over. I realized that a lot of the time I just tune her out. At least until she's asked the question for the 7th time and has gotten really loud. It will be like, "mommy do you see the truck? MOMMY DO YOU SEE THE TRUCK???" And that's after she's already asked if I've seen every other car and bus on the way.

A couple posts ago I talked about how my kids are equal to me in value and dignity. Well, while we were driving (and I was ignoring a series of questions similar to above) it occurred to me that I really need to practice the "equal" thing and not just think it in my head. Her voice is equally important, so I want to make it a new goal to not ignore her. Or even just communicate that yes, I do see that truck, and for now she doesn't need to ask if I see any more of them. Who knows if it will work.

Sometimes I find myself repeating out loud that she is equal to me. I heard Wayne Grudem talk about how he did this with his wife once while she was sleeping, so I thought I would try it with Mary. It's easy to just think, 'I'm the parent, I can do what I want.' But God didn't make me her parent because I'm super mom or because I'm incredibly intelligent and more able to do the job than anyone else. He just made me her mom because that was what he wanted to do. He wanted to bless me with her. It's about Him not me. So I'm feeling a fresh challenge to treat her as my equal in value and dignity. Just thought I'd share:)

First week of school

2011-08-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last week was Mary's first week of (home) school. We call it learning time:) I was nervous about it for some reason...but it went really well. She likes looking at her board and she particularly liked the book The Apple Pie Tree (apples were our theme) so we read it lots! We also did a few activities at her table:
Creation matching game:

Sorting and counting a small bag of m&m's, which she wanted to do again and again

Painting her big A and little a with an alligator stamp

And going through our board each day

We are combining two preschool curriculums: this one and this one. They are both great if any of you ever need an activity to do with your little ones:) It was fun last week...I'm excited to see how it goes from here on out! We have a few friends we meet with once a week so I may have more posts with fun activities we do with them!

birthday party

2011-08-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

We had a combined birthday party for Mary and one of her friends at a park nearby. It was such a great day. The kids all did well together, there was a lot of open space for them to run, and the adults enjoyed good food and company! It was crazy to put a #3 candle on the cupcake

She had fun playing games and exercising her favorite pastime: running.

And Noah got to chew on some ice when he got a little hot

She is a joyful and fun little girl. A little sensitive at times, but what girl isn't:) It's an unspeakable privilege to watch her grow.

3 years ago today...

2011-08-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

This little lady came into our lives.

Just a recap of when she was one:

And two:

And today she is 3! All her teeth have come in now so thankfully she has returned to her usual sweet self (most of the time). She is very thoughtful: sharing toys with Noah, putting his stuff away for him, helping me pick up if I make a mess, throwing stuff away for me, etc. The other day I dropped some frozen peas and they scattered. I closed my eyes and said a prayer for patience. When I opened my eyes Mary was cleaning up the peas and she said, "uh oh mommy! It's ok." Trains and cars are still her favorite things. She likes to play with puzzles and look at books. She also has the most beautiful and contagious laugh. Running is one of her favorite hobbies. I think she could run all day...if her train tracks weren't sitting there waiting to be played with.
It seems like such a freeing age for me too. Now she will ask if she can go play with something in another room, I'll say yes, and off she goes! And I have enough trust in her to know that I will find her doing what she said she wanted to do. She is fun, caring, and turning into quite a lovely little woman:)

Anniversary Weekend

2011-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! It's fun to think back about that time, but we both agree we love each other so much more now than we did back then. We for sure wouldn't go back because it just keeps getting better. Here we are on our wedding day:

Oh yeah, Billy the Bengal was at our wedding.

And so was the Virginia reel

At one point last weekend Ian said, "This time five years ago we were in Alaska!" Ah, now THAT I would go back to! It was so awesome.

And finally, here are some pictures from our relaxing weekend together:

Equal

2011-08-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

A couple things have come up lately that I feel like I have to get out. A couple months ago my aunt asked me if I ever yell at my kids. My response: I try not to. There may be a time for getting angry, Jesus did in a righteous manner. But I haven't come to it in my parenting and I don't think it should be a regular occurrence. There are also people who can't fathom why anyone would spank and think it is child abuse (I use to be "one of those" people). How can those two things go together?

I picked up a book on Ian's shelf that a friend had recommended to us called God, Marriage, and Family. I was getting a little bored with the first part so decided to check out what he said about spanking since it seems to be a hot topic lately. At least in my brain. I was interested to see what he said since the whole intro of the book is about how he intends to see what scripture says about everything and fully submit to it. Well, I was so irked by his spanking section that it was hard to sleep. First, he lists all the "rod" verses. Then, and I mean literally right after listing them, he talks about how spanking is illegal in some countries and how some people think it should be illegal here. He quotes different reasons people are against it. And finally (and most ridiculous and appalling) he says that because Jesus was so gentle and loving toward kids some people think that his actions abolish spanking. Oh wait, that wasn't the last thing. He then goes on to rank different training tools according to severity and says the punishment must fit the crime.

BLAH! There's just so much wrong with that. Part of me thinks 'what do you know Megan. Did you go to seminary???' But that is not a worthy thought. I may not have gone to seminary but I do have a brain. If his book is based on scripture and under it's authority why doesn't he thoroughly explain those rod scriptures??? And why doesn't he back up statements like "the punishment should fit the crime" from scripture?

I guess I just see things completely differently than this author who obviously has prejudice. We all do in some area. First, I don't really see spanking as a harsh punishment. I see it as a loving (although hard to administer) act, just like the scriptures do (see proverbs 13:24). Second, Jesus was both kind and gentle, and filled with authority, passion, and truth. I both love and train my kids. They aren't mutually exclusive. I am gentle with them even in spanking. We talk about what they did in a calm and loving way. Administer the spanking so that it hurts (why do it if it's not going to hurt???) and then talk about it again, apologize if necessary, and we move on.

And finally (I promise...then I'll shut up) when we find ourselves ranking our children's sins and going through this list of punishments on the "harshness" scale our kids are going to see that. I would never want Mary to think I care more about her physical safety than her spiritual safety. They are both very important to me and I will treat them that way. It terrifies me that she would run into the street and get hit by a car. She does get spanked if she goes into the street without us. She also gets spanked when she doesn't listen and respond to our voice when we ask her to do something. They are equally bad in my mind and I think we see in scripture that sin is sin. (Although I'm not saying all sin effects us equally) Besides, she wouldn't have run into the street in the first place if she had been taught to listen.

Oh, and this brings me to why I wrote the post: how can I be both gentle and loving toward my kids and also spank? Here it is...my kids are equal to me in value and dignity, but they have no authority in this relationship. They are made in the image of God just like me. They have the right to be treated with respect and honor because of that. But God gave me authority in this relationship and nothing can take that away or make it untrue (even if I decided not to do anything with that authority). On judgement day I will stand up and give an account for how I raised my kids and I want to say that I did everything I could to train them in the way they should go (proverbs 23:14, eph. 6:4). I have no control of my kids reactions, but I do have authority to be their parent. The could grow up and be psycho killers, but that will not be the pattern of their lives while they are children living under the authority of their parents (and hopefully not the choice of their lives as the grow either). As I train the behavior now, and more increasingly the heart of Mary, I trust in proverbs 22:6

"Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it."

13 months

2011-08-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

Noah is 13 months now! He has started making A LOT of noise now. Not really many new words, but lots of sounds. I bet he would learn more words if I worked on it with him, but I never really do. My favorite is when he signs all done and says it too. We'll ask him if he's all done and he'll shrug his shoulders and put his hands palms up and say "da da!" I really need to get a video of it because it's hilarious. He's walking all over now and prefers it to crawling, but he still does his spider crawl a lot. He's gotten really fast at the spider crawl, so it's pretty funny to watch legs and arms flailing as he zooms across the floor.

He's become a champion eater like the rest of us! But he still wont eat certain things. Mostly just blueberries, raspberries, and grapes. He just looks at them. If I can get one in his mouth he smiles and eats it, but then wont touch the rest. I don't get it, but I'm sure he will start to eat them eventually because they are yummy! And the molars are slowly making their appearance. One point on one of them is through...the rest are still just huge bumps in his mouth. Poor guy.

Here he is after Mary kicked him out of the car. He came to tell me all about it but the camera was between us cause he's just so cute!

toy drawer

2011-08-14T03:42:00.000-07:00

Noah and I were in his room the other day and I was reading my book. I heard him laughing really hard so I looked up and found him here:

I went to grab the camera and he of course climbed out to follow me, but he got back in. That's why he doesn't look as happy as he was in this picture. Whenever he sees the camera it's like he forgets how to smile!

Milk

2011-08-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

We love the take n toss cups. They are cheap and work pretty well. But if the kid drops the cup...

The lid might come off just a little so you don't realize it when you hand the cup back to him. Then when he goes to take a drink...

He will be covered in milk. But he will still be a happy camper after. He is a boy after all!

First client

2011-08-06T16:29:00.001-07:00

For the first time...I have been hired as a doula! I'm so excited to start this ministry of encouraging and supporting women during this exciting, beautiful and sometimes challenging time of life. God has really been providing for this creative outlet in my life. He provided an awesome mentor doula for me. She is also a homemaker, raising 4 kids and homeschooling while she also works with women as a childbirth educator and doula. We met at Noah's birth and connected pretty quickly. She has been so willing and helpful even though she just had a baby! Then, through the referral of a friend, I have my first client. I'm pumped!

So...this is happening! If you know anyone who desires support in labor (no matter what her desires are for medical/non-medical birth options) send her my way! I can't wait to get this party started!

New videos

2011-08-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

We have a couple new videos! The other day Noah started doing this thing where he "fishes" for his cup. It's super cute:

Both of the kids LOVE playing outside. They haven't gotten the memo that it's a million degrees outside. But it stays a little cooler with all the shade in our backyard and they will play for at least an hour which means reading time for mommy and daddy! Here they are enjoying the great outdoors:

Recent reads

2011-08-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

I finished the Duggars first book recently. It is SO good! They are such faithful people it's really challenging and encouraging to learn about their lives. And they share in such a humble way. I hope we can be like them as we grow. Maybe not so much in the 19 kids area, but in other ways we very much look up to them and aspire to have a family like that. I highly recommend that book. Also, they talk about a system called managers of their chores. I'm considering getting that product too, but I might create my own thing based on what the Duggars talk about. They have chore packs that each kid gets after breakfast. It's a pack of cards that they flip through until they are done. For younger kids those cards have pictures on them. So you might have cards that say: get dressed, brush your teeth, make your bed, take out the trash in the bathroom, check in with your buddy...etc. I really like their buddy system too. I mean you kind of need that with 21 people around! But it could be a good family building thing even with smaller families. Anyway, it's a great read.

I also just finished a short book called Birth Your Way by Sheila Kitzinger. This woman is a very well known author in the natural birth circle so i was expecting good things from this book. But I wasn't super thrilled. There were some good things about natural breech deliveries and shoulder dystocia, but beyond that it wasn't much new. I guess if you haven't read much about birth options outside of a hospital then it could be informative, but I think there are some much more comprehensive books out there that also include this information. So basically, if you're not training to become a doula, or have no interest in home birth...then this book's probably not for you. It's also old. Not sure why I read it, but it was from the library so no skin off my back!

Deceptively Delicious

2011-08-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

I recently started making recipes from this cookbook Deceptively Delicious and I have loved every single one of them! Each recipe contains a vegetable in pureed form. It is a super easy way to incorporate veggies, especially if you make a big batch and freeze. Most of the recipes call for half a cup of pureed veggies, and a muffin cup is about half a cup. So I've made a few batches of pureed veggies and frozen them in muffin tins. Tonight I made meatloaf with carrot and mashed potatoes with cauliflower. You seriously couldn't even tell! I've made a few of her muffin recipes and they are so delicious. Today I made peanut butter banana muffins (with carrots!) and they are so so so good. Ian ate 4 of them before I asked him to stop and told him I made them for breakfast! She also adds a half cup of sweet potato puree to pancake mix (along with some cinnamon) and it is seriously good. My kids eat veggies pretty well...it's ME who hates them. So this cook book has been a God send. There is a recipe for chocolate fondue that is half avocado! I served it to some guys who were over helping with the basement and they said they loved it. Then I mentioned it was mostly avocado. They couldn't believe it.

This book is worth it. And if you can make the trip over to Ollie's in Forest Part it's only like $4. So good!

Spears Wedding

2011-07-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was AMAZING. Ian was set to officiate his first wedding so we went up Friday for the rehearsal. The grooms parents offered to put us up in a hotel for two nights and there was no way we were going to turn them down! So we had a weekend away just the two of us! The rehearsal was very nice and the wedding was so Christ centered and encouraging. The reception was a great time to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while. And of course we got to go back to a hotel which wasn't home, but also didn't contain children who wanted to wake up at 7 AM.
Here is Ian all ready to go to the church. A little nervous...but he did great!

Happy couple:

It was such a great weekend to reconnect with my awesome husband. We missed the kiddos, but it was some much needed time just the two of us. Josh and Megan are such a beautiful couple. It was an honor to witness their marriage!

More Noah

2011-07-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

As if you could get enough Noah! Our attempts to capture a video of him walking are failing. It's like as soon as he sees the camera he just sits down and stares at it. I'll have to sneak up on him. I love the beginnings of the walking stage because they look so hilarious as the stumble around. The past few days that's all he wants to do: keep practicing his walking skills! Whereas last week he had only taken 3-4 steps at a time and fallen over, now he can walk across a small room. It's crazy how fast things happen.

Instead of feeling frustrated at not being able to video him walking, I decided to take a few pictures the other day when he was being extra cute. Have I mentioned that he likes to squeeze himself into small spaces????

Yes, he found the balls. And yes, he likes to dump them all out and chew on them individually.

He is growing so fast! I think he just keeps hitting one growth spurt after another. And he's also getting his first set of molars. I wasn't even looking there because he still hasn't gotten one of his bottom right teeth. But he's been drooling and chewing on his fingers. I knew molars were next after that tooth so I just checked and sure enough...one molar is through and the other three are bulging. He seems to handle it well. He still gives us lots of smiles:)

Noah's party

2011-07-25T06:39:00.001-07:00

Noah's birthday party was such a sweet event. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate and Noah enjoyed his first taste of cake immensely. He had his second taste the next day as we had "family cupcake time" and polished off the leftovers.
Mary giving kisses:

Yay for Noah!

Getting cleaned off in the pool

Speaking of looking back

2011-07-10T18:35:00.001-07:00

In the post below I talked about how I created this blog as a way to remember where our family has been. Ups and downs. Knowledge gained, etc. I often look back at the posts from when my kids were born. Today is one of those days because it is my little man's birthday! I remember the day he was born so vividly. Mostly because I was very "lucid" during his birth. With Mary I was very out of it. Like I was on drugs or something. But Noah's birth was not like that and I am so grateful. I remember going out to Don Pablos with friends. I remember Amber laying next to me and timing contractions while we watched some episodes of Friends. Ian made the decision to go to the hospital. We dealt with the nurse there and all the obnoxious hospital policies, although that time was much better than birth with Mary. Our doula arrived! And I hopped in the shower that stayed hot for like 2 hours. I love a hot shower! So that was bliss. I remember sitting on the birth ball and thinking I couldn't go on. I climbed up on the bed and knelt down to push. Out he came with his little hand up by his mouth! I cried. I couldn't believe I had a son. It was a surreal moment for me. Dr. Bowen said I had a weird tear, probably because Noah's hand was up by his head when we was born. I told Dr. Bowen that I just wanted to give him a bit of a challenge:)

Fast forward to a year later and I have a cute little warrior on my hands. He loves his mommy. A doula friend of mine calls it her "mommy magnet". I think I have one too:) He loves to say "e-i-e-i-o," which sounds a lot like yodeling. He is a pretty compliant baby which is nice. Mom's notes says that babies on a routine (or babywise babies!) are generally complaint until they reach the toddler stage. Then they start to exhibit behaviors of a typical two year old. I remember that with Mary, so I'm waiting for it with Noah. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing for him: bad because I know it's coming and I'm prepared to deal with it, or good because it's not going to completely throw me for a loop this time around!

Anyway, he is a happy "wrecking ball" most of the time. That is his newest nickname by the way. He loves to seek and destroy. He also loves to put objects into bowls and drawers so we're trying to turn that into a clean up game:) We thank God for him daily. What a blessing. Happy birthday my buddy!

Vacation

2011-07-10T18:18:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a few weeks since vacation and I'm just getting around to putting up pictures. Mostly because I put them all on facebook and kodak so I figure that the people who wanted access to them already got it! But then I remembered why I originally started this blog: as a way to remember where we've been as a family.

We stayed at this AMAZING condo complex in Virginia Beach. Actually it was right outside VA beach, so we got to beat the crowds. Ian and I had a date night one night. If you know our usual date nights you can guess what we did...dinner then reading at Panera! It was just a great time with family over all! My family is huge. About 1/4 of my mom's side came down and here we are:

We had lots of fun on the beach. Mary got to play tricks on daddy by pouring water on his feet, and both kids got to spend lots of time with their cousins!

My mom took Mary and I to the aquarium one day. It was really neat and Mary enjoyed it! She even got to touch a horse shoe crab. I can't believe she did it. Maybe she thought it wasn't alive? I think it was moving though. Maybe she wants to take a few more risks in life:)

In addition

2011-06-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

I have to add a moment of grace to that last post. A verse I read a while ago really struck me in the area of parenting. It is in Genesis 16 where Hagar is running away from Sarah. When Sarah finds out that Hagar is pregnant she is really mean to Hagar so Hagar runs away. An angel finds Hagar and tells her some things. Here is one of them:
11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward[b] all his brothers.”

It says he WILL be a wild donkey of a man. This struck me because it meant that no matter what Hagar did, no matter how she trained him or prayed for him, this man was going to be angry and wild. It's easy to read books and think, 'OK Megan, put your big girl pants on and get these kids trained! They will fall in line!' And I do think we should teach our kids...but the fact is some things are unchangeable. Mary is emotional and cautious. Noah is narcoleptic and a spaz. I'm not sure if those things will change, but I love them and I don't care if those things change. I will love them anyway.

That's it. Just wanted to pepper in a helping of grace.

To Train Up A Child

2011-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

I just finished this book and it is officially a staple in our home. I wrote about it a while ago, but just finished the last bit of it yesterday. If you are a Christian parent, here are some reason you need to buy this book right now: 1. there is scripture EVERYWHERE. They use scripture well and a lot. 2. It covers all ages and tons of practical situations. 3. It is concise (100 pages). He says what he means and is not repetitive in the least. That's how he can write a 100 page book and cover so much. 4. He is not an emotional, flaky parent. That's annoying. I mean we're all emotional sometimes right? But I don't think it's good to base your parenting theology on emotions. 5. He is in tune with the heart side of parenting. A lot of the book is about training and behavior. But he has two of the best chapters I've ever read on the heart side of parenting. One is about tying the heart strings of your family together and the other is about our inner joy which flows into the joy of our family and our kids. 6. He explains things very well. He gives the reasoning behind things that can be hard to swallow at first. I like that because I'm logical. If things don't make sense in my head I can't see their value. It's not always good...just saying that's how my brain works.

A few warnings though. Sometimes when reading books like this it's easy to think of myself as a failure. My kids are not perfect. And sometimes the authors make it seem so easy to train a child. But I have to keep in mind that they parented 5 children and all of their kids are grown. To me, that means that they learned all these things over time and got better as they went. They do address this sentiment at the end of the book and I was glad. They encourage readers to be consistent and persistent and they can see the fruit of their labor. This is the thing I like about the book most. Sometimes it's easy to look around and think that crazy children and disorder in the home is OK, even normal. Maybe it is normal for our culture, but it doesn't HAVE to be that way. That's refreshing and good to know. I mean, if a home is 90% psycho and 10% peace...that is not a blessing to anyone. But again, it doesn't have to be that way. God created order and I'm pretty sure He likes it. If you aren't convinced take some time to observe the natural patterns in any given day. A home can be a peaceful place for everyone to enjoy. With really young kids that can be a challenge, there's no way around it, but it's possible.

Another warning is that sometimes they can go to extreme measures to train. He always explains his reasoning and heart behind it though. Just got to give him the chance! So there's my plug. If you are wondering why I'm posting this so early, it's because I had a large cup of ice cream last night and I woke up with a stomach ache around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Worth it.

Monticello

2011-06-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Our first stop on vacation was to Thomas Jefferson's house:) That's what Ian kept telling Mary. It was a pretty cool historical tour. And if you know me, and my lack of interest in history, then you know that says a lot. We stayed in a hotel the night before and of course the highlight for Mary was the "elegator" and riding on the luggage cart.

The highlight for Noah was crawling around on the bed and having daddy pull him back.

Here we are outside of Thomas Jefferson's house!

Mary thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride we got to take.

And Noah was pretty tired after missing his normal morning nap. He fell asleep in his stroller a few minutes after this picture.

Overall, Monticello is a win. I think it would be cool to go back a visit when the kids are older and can remember some of the history. It was interesting to see the system he had for the slaves and how his house was run. It was pricey, but I'm going to say it was worth it!

11 months

2011-06-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

Noah is 11 months old now! Well, he's been 11 months for a couple weeks, but we were on vacation during that time. I think he gets more handsome every day. He said ball today. Which I think we are going to count as his first word, since he said it while pointing to a ball. He really enjoys hiding things. For example, while we were driving home from vacation Ian was feeding him some cereal. He was just handing Noah pieces every couple minutes or so. After he was done he saw Noah look at a fruit loop then put it under his leg. So Ian went to reach under Noah's leg and found like 15 fruit loops under there. He was met with the same when he checked the other leg...so we're not really sure he ate anything.

He's still obsessed with mommy, but I think he's working through the separation anxiety thing because he doesn't flip out when I leave the room anymore. A lot of times he just follows me:) He still loves to sleep which is nice. He's finally started eating pieces of fruits and veggies that aren't mashed. He'll eat anything from a spoon, but it's been a serious process to get him to pick up anything besides carbs. I like carbs too so I can't blame him. He likes to shake his head yes and no, which we think is so cute. And he's been going boom boom on the toilet for like 2 months now. He still goes in his diaper some times, but man it's so awesome when he goes on the toilet and I don't have to clean it out of a diaper. The other day I saw him turning red in the face and I said "Noah, do you have to poopy?" And he crawled toward the bathroom. He didn't go on the toilet...but I think he's starting to make the connection. We'll see!

Loving Daddy

2011-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the kiddos loving on daddy at the beach:) More to come!

Been a while

2011-06-20T04:25:00.001-07:00

This post is simply because it's been a while! I have a ton of pictures to put up as soon as I get them filtered and fixed:) We went on vacation last week, which was amazing. Noah is 11 months now! And I'm reading a book that I love. So those posts are all forthcoming. I know you will all be sitting by the computer waiting for them;)

For now, here are two videos of Noah from about a month ago. We are trying to decide if "yeah" counts as his first word. I mean, it IS a word, and he said it...but he was only repeating us. So I don't think it really counts. Ian thinks it might. Jury's out. But you can see him say it in the first video at the end.

This second video was one of Noah's favorite things a few weeks ago. He hasn't done it much since. But he likes to hang on to the back of my legs and poke his cute little head through. Sometimes he just stands like that while I'm cooking, but if I have to walk somewhere he likes to come too.

My new love

2011-05-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

My new love is the new cloth diapers I have:) I guess it's been 2 months or so since I bought them, but it takes that long to get around to bragging about diapers when you have two kids. Anyway, If you would have asked me 6 months ago if cloth diapers were worth the effort I would have said no. I was using gDiapers. Which are SOOOOO cute. That's really why I bought them, not going to lie. But they were not very absorbent, they had too many parts, and they leaked a lot. Washing was a pain because of all the parts (really it's only three parts but you have to wash them separately). I reminded myself of the money I was saving, but at the same time I always wondered if it was worth the headache.
I was about to throw in the towel when I talked with a good friend about her cloth diapers and she really loved hers. It didn't seem like hers were a huge burden like mine were. So I got a couple of the kind she has: Flip Diapers, by cotton babies. Man, what a difference! These things are almost as absorbent as disposables. The outer shell is water resistant (unlike my dumb gDiapers) so they rarely ever leak even when the inside diaper is soaked. They are much thicker than a disposable and my g's were, but they still fit under his clothes so it's not a huge deal. Basically I love them and I never wonder if cloth diapering is worth it any more. I can throw everything (covers and diapers) in the wash together and I wash them twice a week. I just throw them in the dryer with other loads of regular laundry so it's not like I'm doing more folding or laundering than normal. It's like a dream. I spent $100 and won't have to buy any more diapers ever. It would have cost more if I didn't keep the g cloth that I have. I did get rid of some but I will still use those ones sometimes. I basically sold all but the cloth inserts of my g's and that paid for my flips.
And with some early potty (or should I say poop) training of Noah I haven't had to dip a diaper in the toilet in 4 days. You really get over the grossness of that quickly, but a lot of time I don't even dip them anyway. I just shake the big clumps off and throw the diaper in the pail.
Just wanted to share. These things are great and totally worth it!

Mary's Tonsils

2011-05-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago Mary started having chronic ear and throat infections and was basically sick the whole winter. She'd been doing pretty well for the past month besides her nose constantly running and the occasional cough. About a month ago we met with her ear, nose, and throat doctor again and he suggested that our other options had run out and we should probably get her tonsils out. So last Friday we took Mary to Childrens and got her gigantic tonsils taken out. I was so very proud of Mary. She hadn't eaten in the longest time, but she didn't complain. She asked for a snack once but after I told her no she let it go. She let the doctors examine her and even practiced putting her mask on that they used for anesthesia:

All the nurses said how good she was doing for a two year old. I was mostly glad she took everything in stride because I'm sure Ian and I would have broken down in tears and called it off if she'd been a mess. Here she is about 45 minutes after surgery:

She was groggy and upset at first, but once she heard a little baby crying across the room she sat up and said, "let's get him a bottle." Then she said, "I want to go see Noah." I think she might have thought the baby was Noah?? They were probably close in age. Once she was sitting up the nurse asked if she wanted a Popsicle and of course Mary was all over that. The doctor told me she probably wouldn't want to eat anything for a few days afterward, but the whole time I was thinking, 'man you're about to see something special...because my kid likes to eat!'

She started to feel pretty tired once we got up to her room. So we ordered her food and let her sleep for a bit. She ate over half the food they brought her and the nurse couldn't believe it. Mary will endure pain to eat. She loves it that much. Later that night we found a place to play:

And painted toe nails:

She did OK during the night. I think once all the anesthesia medicine was out of her system she started hurting a bit more. She woke a few times and it was hard to see her so upset and be mostly unable to explain it to her. But she woke up smiling and talking in the morning:

She did a little better last night and is mostly happy now. You wouldn't even know she just had surgery unless you knew her well and could see that she's more irritable than normal. I think kids handle pain and sickness much better than adults do. Either that, or Mary was just so used to her throat hurting that this pain is not that out of the norm.

I'm glad we're past surgery! We're praising God for answering our prayers for her safety and for guiding the doctors. Here's to a quick recovery!

Mothers Day

2011-05-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

This mother's day was probably my favorite one yet (that I've celebrated as an actual mother). We had a fun time at church and then visited some family. God has blessed me greatly with two beautiful and loving kids, and it has been a privilege to raise them so far.

Baby Boy Noah

2011-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

My baby is almost not a baby. He is 10 months old now! We call him many things: nono, Noski, little Noah man, nono pants, chubs, etc. It is always funniest when Mary says those nick names. She will point at him and say very excitedly, "There's a little Noah man!" And he always lights up when she says it. He is in constant motion even when you are holding him! His favorite things to do are try to fit in small spaces, beat his hands on anything that will make noise, and yell strange sounds in harmony with Mary. He is doing much better with finger foods (to mommy's delight), and he got two more teeth in since his 9 month post. Here is my handsome little prince:

Recent videos

2011-05-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

We've taken a couple videos recently and it's taken a while to get them on the computer. But finally I am sitting down to do this! Here is Mary doing her new favorite thing:

Noah showing off his newest skill:

And another one:

Last but not least, we have Mary copying daddy, which she is very good at:

Noah is 10 months old today! I will post pictures from his "photo shoot" sometime soon:)

We have needs

2011-05-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

In our culture weakness is not looked well upon. People don't want to show need or ask for help. This is very sad to me. The truth is we ALL need help. We all go through hard times. At our church we help a lot of people and sometimes it's hard for them to accept that help. What I always tell them is that everyone needs help at different times. Sometimes people need help getting groceries. Sometimes people need a hug. We all have needs.

This is especially true of parents who have just had a child, especially their first. My heart is really for people in this period of life right now. Maybe because I'm in that period or maybe that's a heart God has given me. Not sure which. But I'm trying to decide so that I can know whether I want to pursue becoming a Doula more seriously. Anyway, a quote from a book I'm reading now says,
"While almost all societies have a system for helping parents through this period (the postpartum period), in the United States the lack of widely accepted cultural tradition for giving the necessary support to families after childbirth is a major deficiency."
I agree. I think it stems from people wanting to seem "strong" or that they have it all together. Who are we kidding??? None of us have it all together.

I think this quote shows the need of the Doula. Doula's are support people. Mostly used during labor, but how valuable is that help after birth as well. I personally think every woman should have access to a Doula during her labor, and someone to help her for the first 3-6 months after birth as well. It's too bad our hospitals don't have programs in place for this because it can be expensive to hire a Doula. Maybe I'll do it for free:)

Random fun

2011-05-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to two birthday parties and it was overall just a really great day. The first party was at a park and it was to celebrate 1 year of life for our little friend. Here he is enjoying his cake:

If that picture doesn't make you smile I don't know what will! Here are some other pictures from the party:

And here is Mary when we tried to wake her up to go to the second party. She is snoring and completely asleep in this picture. When she is tired she is just done!

Rainy Days

2011-05-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

I've been told a couple times lately that some day I will miss when my kids are this young. That's hard to believe, but I'm trying to savor my days with my little ones. Since it's been SOOO rainy around here I decided to carry my camera around with me one day and document what life is like an your average day so I can remember this when they get older!
Off we go...

Easter

2011-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

I brought my camera with my everywhere on Easter and still didn't manage to get a decent picture of the family... We got doughnuts to celebrate resurrection day!

Hey mom:)

It was my turn to be in kid care last weekend. I was kind of sad because it was Easter and I wanted to be part of what we were doing for that, but I also got to play with some pretty cool kids:

Lazy Day

2011-04-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was a pretty lazy day! Ian had the day off work so we played with the kids and sat around:) Tea party in bed:

Even after a nap she didn't want to get up!

Right before bed they got baths. Noah stood next to the bath the entire time she was in there! Loves his sister.

Tomorrow

2011-04-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

I am so pumped for tomorrow. Usually I'm not a fan of "artsy" things. Things that stray from the norm that I'm used to. I'm a very practical person so when we do things at church like have time for reflection or make detailed videos I always wonder 'what is this accomplishing???' This clashes in a big way with people at our church because there are many artists there. Film makers, graphic designers, and in general people who like to create. At first I didn't see the value in this because I don't generally see beauty and emotionalism as super valuable. But you know what? God has really softened my heart in this area. God made things beautiful and he didn't have to. He gave us emotions. He brought all these wonderfully creative people into my life for a reason and now I can't help but love them! And I'm starting to see the value in all the talents that they have.

You may be wondering why I'm talking about all this. Tomorrow at church we are having worship, and they are showing a short film that was (or should I say, is probably still in process) made by a couple very talented people in our church. That's it, and then we're having lunch. I think this film will be very powerful because it is people who have gone through situations that most of us only have nightmares about, but they have been made new and redeemed by Jesus. Come and see! Here is a preview:

Egg Hunt

2011-04-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Our church held an Easter egg hunt last weekend at an apartment complex down the street from my house. It was lots of fun for everyone:) Even the babies got to crawl around on a blanket and pick up eggs that contained animal crackers!

9 months

2011-04-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

Little Nono is 9 months old now! I think he gets cuter (is that a word?) every day. He's very strong and mobile. He literally hurts me sometimes cause he just holds on to my arm so tight. He really loves mommy and gets so excited when he sees me. I love that! He also really loves Mary and following her around the house. He's been more vocal lately too. He likes to say "DA!" really loud occasionally. Eating finger foods is really funny and a bit of a challenge. He spits everything out the first and second time it goes in. He's got a stubborn and persistent mommy though...so I keep popping that food back in. He'll eat a few things now on his own. He still likes his sleep! He will start to get fussy when he's tired so I go in to get him ready for sleep. I'll be holding him right before a nap and rocking with him wanting to snuggle him but he continues to fuss until I lay him down in his crib. Then he snuggles into it and calms right down. I don't get it, but I guess I'm OK with it. I'd like it if he wanted to cuddle, but I'm not going to complain about him loving the crib either.
Here are some pictures from last weekend on his actual 9 month birthday:) Dirty little fingers:

Gatlinburg

2011-04-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

Wow. It is feast or famine with this blog. We got back from our trip to Gatlinburg yesterday. We did not get much sleep, but it was so worth it! We had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories with some of our good friends. The kids did really well in the car which was a shocker. Mary ALWAYS puts her sunglasses on upside down. I think she thinks that's the right way. Oh well:

The view from our cabin was incredible when the fog finally lifted. Here is a picture of us outside:

Noah and his little friend:

We hiked to Laurel Falls with two kids. Difficult, but not impossible!

Both kids got extra sleepy on the hike as it was way past nap time!

Pizza

2011-03-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

We made homemade pizza for the first time the other day. Well we've made pizzas from french bread and bagels before, but it was the first time I made the dough myself. I used the recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Book and added a few spices of my own. I grabbed the camera and asked Mary to show me her hands and show me how messy she was and this is what she did:

It looks like a mix between her surrendering and a mug shot. I promise she was smiling and having fun before this! And for the clean up:

Mary's Class

2011-03-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

We are taking a toddler class at the community art's center in Fairfield and some friends from our church are taking it too! Mary and Eli are becoming good friends. He really likes holding her hand for ring around the rosy:) Here they are making masks a couple weeks ago:

Bread:)

2011-03-18T11:09:00.001-07:00

We loves carbs around here. A lot. Lately I've been getting back into cooking meals that take a little more time and making my own bread (yes...it took 2.5 years after having a kid). Anyway, recently I have found some great bread/roll recipes. My friend Pat shared her beer bread recipe with me:
3 Cups Self-Rising Flour
3 Tablespoonds Sugar
12 ounces of beer

Mix those three things together and pour 3 T melted butter over it, bake at 350 for 45 minutes and you have a winner. I also found the BEST biscuits. I am told they're like the ones at Red Lobster, but I've never been there. And finally I found some dinner rolls that I think are amazing. I always bought the sister shubert's frozen rolls at Kroger because they are seriously awesome and I couldn't make anything that tasted that good. Enter this dinner roll recipe. I usually don't like Martha Stewart's recipes because there's always one pretentious ingredient that costs a lot and you only use for that one recipe. But not this time:) I like her baking book because it's detailed, but I'm cheap so I don't use half the recipes in that book! The Parker House Rolls will for sure be a staple in this house from now on.

ice cube fun

2011-03-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

Tired of being stuck inside? Don't know how to keep your toddler busy while you're busy cleaning or feeding a baby? Put some food coloring in some water and make colored ice cubes. She loved it. They melted in the sink a little too fast for my liking, but I didn't want to use cold water and make her little finger freeze off. But it's a real winner.

8 months

2011-03-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Noah is getting closer to 1 every day and it seems so crazy to me. He is crawling like a champ and has his two upper front teeth now as well. I love this stage because he can show us when he wants us. He will crawl to whoever he wants and reach up to them with one arm and start to whimper a little. It's so special because before this point you never really get that sense that they want you. Now you know:)

She is definitely choking him in this picture. Didn't realize that until I was looking through the pictures. Ooops! Don't worry, within a year he will be bigger than her and he'll be able to love on her equally.

belly laughs

2011-03-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

My kids make me laugh all the time. Like deep laughter. Here are two moments recently. I was washing dishes the other day and I heard a sucking noise. I looked over and this is what I saw:

He was sucking on her fingers and actually holding on to them most of the time. And she thought it was hilarious. Then Noah got stuck under the table. It was fun trying to get him out of there.

This is happening

2011-03-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

I grew flowers! I notoriously kill plants of all kinds. Even the ones that the guy at home depot called "hearty" and "impossible to kill". Oh, he hadn't met me yet. But sitting on my kitchen table right now is a vase full of paperwhites that I grew! I read about growing them indoors during winter on the raising homemakers blog. I bought some from a lady on etsy and she sent me 5 bulbs along with instructions on how to force them to grow. It was super easy, even for me. I did find a little tip about using a solution of 5% alcohol to keep them from growing too long and falling over. I think I started using that too late though because one of the stems did fall over. But I'm still pumped that they are blooming and beautiful.

If you are ready for spring you should try it!

Getting nice out!

2011-03-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

It's getting warmer! We busted out the sunglasses the other day.

getting dressed

2011-03-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

I have a book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready! It has one activity each week for the first five years of life. The claim is that if you do these activities and also work on letters, phonics, and numbers, it is a solid preschool program and your child will be ready for kindergarten at age 5. We'll see!

The first activity we did is pictured below. I had Mary lay down and I traced her body outline onto a large piece of paper (the packing material from a recent amazon purchase). Then we embellished the face and I had her "put clothes" on the drawing Mary. She really liked it. I found myself getting frustrated with her a couple times and had to monitor my response. I want her to see these things as fun (which she did), but not be stressed out by my own impatience. She kept asking me to help her with the clothes but she hadn't really even tried. So I'd tell her to try again but I did have to help her some. I don't want her to get frustrated with the first activity. Overall I think it was good. She actually asked to do it again later in the day and went to get some clothes:)

Little mama

2011-03-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

This may be too weird for you blog readers, but we think it is HILARIOUS!

On the move

2011-03-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

Noah started crawling about a week ago. He went from rocking back and forth constantly to just crawling one day. It's like he decided to take the plunge.

He's gotten a little better since this video but I wouldn't say he's a pro yet:)

3 seams

2011-03-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

At church we are collecting cereal boxes for the apParent project. You should check out their site! But basically a large portion of Haiti's orphans are not actually parent-less. They are children whose parents cannot afford to feed them and take care of them so they take them to the orphanage. This project helps women make money for their families so that they can keep their children. They make these awesome beads out of cereal boxes! Check them out.
Well a friend from church told me about this other organization called 3 seams that does something similar but with clothing for girls. You buy one dress and they send an identical one to a child who needs it. I bought the one in the picture for Mary last night. Part of me cringed as I hit the button to pay $50 for ONE dress. But then I thought about it and really I was buying two dresses. And I thought about it more and realized that it didn't matter how much we are going to get out of that money. That money is going to support people who really need it. Anyway, if you have a little girl or know someone you need a gift for...go buy something cute! They have skirts too that are much cheaper:)

ps - the jewelry from the apParent project is really cool too! I saw some at church and it is cute!

The Doula Book

2011-02-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's the name of one of the books I bought Friday. When people have asked me why we hired a Doula for both births I never really know what to say. I couldn't really put words to why I wanted them. Enter: The Doula Book. I've only read the first 2 chapters, but it really helped put words to my thoughts.

Up until about 100 (ish) years ago women were always surrounded by other women while giving birth. Usually a midwife and a couple other women who were close to the mother. Women were always able to share that experience with other women who could support them and really go through the experience with them because they had either done it themselves, or looked forward to doing that in the future. Then births were moved to hospitals and it was usually just the woman with a doctor and nurse who were in and out of the room. Can you imagine? That would be so scary. Anyway, then they started pushing for the fathers to be in the room. Which is immensely better than being alone, but still lacked something. Fathers are great for support and have a close relationship with the mother which is so valuable. But they often don't know what to do, feel scared when their wives are in so much pain, and/or don't have the knowledge and skills to comfort their wives effectively. This is where the doula comes in. She is the supportive woman being brought back into the picture. She fills the role that women filled for thousands of years. She is a knowledgeable and encouraging presence.

That is why I loved having a doula there! Someone who was knowledgeable about the whole process and had been through it before was there with me the entire time. Doctors in nurses mostly have your health in mind, but they also are thinking about themselves, hospital and medical policy, etc. But a doula's sole focus is you and your baby and encouraging you through this most difficult process. I definitely needed Ian too, but this woman knew what it was like to be in my position. She encouraged me and talked me through different things. She could tell me that what i was experiencing was normal and that I was doing a good job and I believed her because she knew what she was talking about. I remember that Ian kept saying, "It's going to be OK, you're doing great" And I glared at him. I was thinking, 'what do you know? Have you done this before?!?' It wasn't my finest moment as a wife, but I'm just telling it like it was. He was right, of course, but something about our Doula saying it gave me more comfort in that situation. It's almost a sacred thing having her there supporting me. That's why I wanted a Doula there and that's why I think they are so important. The book goes on to talk about how much better outcomes can be when doula's are present so I'm interested in reading about that!

I post these things knowing that not many of you care...but if you know pregnant women in need of support whether before or during their labor feel free to send them my way! I could talk about this stuff forever!

Fabulous weekend

2011-02-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

My weekend started on Friday! Ian stayed with the kids and I got the entire day off. First time since Noah was born and it was AWESOME! I went to Panera and spent some quiet time reading, then a friend met me for breakfast. I went on to get a massage at Mitchel's which was heavenly. Then I had bible study with my high school girls, then back home to cook up some pasta and take it over to our good friend's house to have dinner with them. Perfect day. And Saturday only got better! For Ian's birthday I got him tickets to Fiddler on the Roof and my mom got him a gift card to Boi na Braza. We experienced both of those things on Saturday:) Fiddler was great, although I was a little disappointed at the end. I thought there should have been more. But Boi na Braza did not disappoint at all! It was soooo delicious. I need to go google parmesan pork loin and figure out how to make that as great as they did. And their cheese bread, which seemed more like a cheese popover to me, was the best thing I've ever tasted. Yes, better than Arby's curly fries and a flubs cyclone, and if you know me well that's saying a lot. I think I ate 6 of them. And I wanted more, but that's a classy place and I already felt like I was in a fishbowl. I didn't want them judging me for stuffing my face (well...more so than I already had). Although it is a place with all you can eat meat that is brought around to your table...so I'm not sure how judgmental they can be.

Anyway, it was a great weekend, but I'm glad to have my babies back in their beds tonight. I missed them with all my time off! I also bought two more books on Friday because I was right by half price and I found two books on my required reading list for Doula certification. Let's just forget about the 15 books waiting on my shelf for me already. It was half price! And I'll need them eventually. That's how I justify it to myself;)

The problem with schools

2011-02-23T10:01:00.001-08:00

It seems like a while now that education has been in the spotlight in our nation. Everyone has their opinion on what will fix the low performance from our students. We've added testing and standards to every possible area and blamed teachers for bad outcomes. In all my classroom management classes in college we were told that if our students weren't learning and weren't under control then it is always the fault of the teacher. This sent up red flags in my brain but at the time I didn't really know why. Don't get me wrong, there are some bad teachers out there. But I know a lot of teachers and probably 90% of them are good at what they do. The ones you read about in the newspaper are outliers. However, as humans we like to blame shift. We've been doing it since Adam. Did you know that a mother is suing McDonalds for putting toys in their kids meals? Because it makes her kid whine and complain and want kids meals. For the love, stop putting YOUR kid in the car, DRIVING to McDonalds, and BUYING the kids meal! Tangent.

As a parent I now understand why those red flags went up. Whose job is it to train children??? Let's search the truth:
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." eph 6:4
"Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." prov. 22:6

And what is "the way he should go"?
"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Col 3:20

What if, instead of bashing teachers and claiming they need more education and accountability, we held PARENTS responsible for the training of their children. I mean, imagine it: a teacher says "quiet now" in a calm and steady voice and the room fell silent. No amount of classroom management will provoke that. Only a child who has been trained at home to obey authority will do the same in a classroom. But this is not the case. Instead, a large portion of a teacher's day is spent organizing kids, asking them to be seated and quiet, telling them to get to work, etc.

Parents are abdicating their responsibility and giving it to daycares and schools. In all my college classes and even student teaching I wanted to shout "it's not my job to teach them to sit and listen, let alone to respect me!" It is the parent's job. I can teach algebra to even the dumbest kid, but it is not my job to teach him the discipline of doing his homework, studying, and paying attention in class. But parents are working 8-9 hour days and kids need at least 10 hours of sleep at night...not much time left to train when you consider all the other necessities of life.

In my experience with high school students, young children, their parents, and lots of teachers, I think it's safe to say that the problem with schools is not just poor education or bad teachers, it's the lack of parents who are willing to do their jobs (as parents) and love their children enough to train them.

Sorry for the rant. This comes after a series of really frustrating occurrences including one of Ian's students calling him gay, a PARENT calling one of Ian's friends (also a teacher) Satan, and the possibility of Ohio cutting spending on education and giving school boards the authority to cut teacher pay by up to 20% as well. The thing that bugged me the most was the parent calling names. Seriously? You don't have to wonder for too long how these kids turned out the way they did. I mean there are a lot of people who don't treat teachers as professionals, but what about treating them like humans???? Grrrr...sorry again blog readers, but I have a small voice and had to let this out somewhere!

homemade gifts

2011-02-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've made a lot of homemade gifts in the past couple months so I thought I would share some here because I know there are some frugal women who read this and want ideas. I already posted this frame, but recently a friend asked me to make one for her daughter so I thought I'd post it as an idea. These frames cost like $5 at Hobby Lobby and if you use a half price coupon...so cheap.

I made this gift for some special people in our lives:) Actually
they haven't all received it yet so Hank if you're reading this don't show Connie!

It's pretty easy, you just have to be able to cut a 4x4 (which is actually 3.5x3.5) into cubes because they can't do it at home depot. The lady tried but couldn't get a straight cut. Then spray paint black, print out some letters, pictures, poems, etc. and attach with Mod Podge. I also spray a clear coat of workable fixatif over the top.
I also made these cards. And if you're into crochet or knitting you can make lots with that, but one thing I really like is getting someone a book and crocheting a bookmark to go with it. You can even put their name on it with a slip stitch. You just have to use that really thin and sturdy yarn and a tiny hook. There's one more thing I'm making for friends that are getting married this year but none are finished yet so I'll have to share later! It involves pictures of letters and their last names:)

Learning update

2011-02-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

So the summer of learning got off to an early start. One of the things he wanted to do was start writing poems and for valentines day this year he wrote me one:) I'm sure I'm not aloud to share it, but just wanted to say the learning is underway! Happy Valentines day!

Baby Doll

2011-02-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

Mary's favorite toys have always been buses, rocks, and cars. But recently she has started to really like her baby doll! I think this is because she loves Noah and wants to practice being a mommy:) Sometimes she will feed baby doll (only once has she tried to nurse her baby doll...awkward), she likes to put baby doll to "night night", and the like. I think it's so cute because she even turns the noise maker on just like we do for her and Noah when we put them to bed. Since she puts baby doll night night in her crib I've wondered how she gets her out of there. The doll's head is too big to fit through the slats and there's no way Mary can reach over. Well the other night me and my video camera caught how she gets baby doll out:

Martha to the Max

2011-02-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

Once I found a book with this title and I bought it without even reading the back. Have you ever seen the TV show friends? I swear they fashioned Monica after me. Both of these things illustrate the fact that I am a very detail oriented person. So much so that a lot of the time it hinders me from seeing the big picture. It's a good thing I married a big picture person. Sometimes my detailed personality is very useful and good, but sometimes recently by the end of the day I've been feeling like a big failure. Why did I feel this way? When I looked back on my day I was getting a good amount of "stuff" done. Then I heard God repeat to me what I've heard so many times: But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” ~Luke 10:41 Aha! He might as well have been saying "My dear Megan..."

Yesterday was a lot better because I asked God if I could be Mary that day instead of Martha. I wanted to sit at God's feet that day instead of running around on my own feet checking off items from the 10 page list in my head then getting frustrated at the little people (and sometimes grown man) in my way. I did a couple practical things too: when I noticed myself walking really fast as I often do, I slowed down. Why such haste to put away some socks? I took time with each kid to just sit with them. Mary always says, "mommy sit down" when she wants me to sit and play with her. I noticed that I'm always saying, "OK Mary after mommy ..." So instead of saying that I just dropped what I was doing and sat with her. The kitchen counter really doesn't need to be cleaned 3 times a day.

I really like how gentle God was with Martha. He didn't say, "YOU are the one who's got it backward. You're mess up girl. Why do you need everything to be perfect? Do you think YOU'RE perfect?? Because you're not." These are the things I hear in my head a lot, but that is not the voice of God. Jesus knew that Martha loved him, she was just expressing it in an unhealthy way. There's nothing wrong with making a good meal for people, but where are my motives? And where is the time sitting at Jesus' feet?

Basically I'm seeking God for change. Some things are good: having a welcoming and organized home, and children who obey, have some self control, and add to that welcoming environment. But some things are infinitely better: love, prayer, grace, freedom, etc. I want to seek those better things first and all throughout the day and if the good things don't get completely finished and wrapped up in a little package, there's always tomorrow.

Observe

2011-02-12T04:46:00.000-08:00

I'm really enjoying To Train Up A Child. It's written by Amish people and I just think their culture is so unique and admirable. I have no desire to actually become Amish, but I respect them for what they do. I noticed that often in his book he gives examples of interactions between parents and their kids and tells what they should have done or how they should have trained their children differently. I've told a couple people recently who have had questions for me that they should observe others in this way too. Maybe not exactly that way because I think he can be kind of judgmental in his book. I like to observe others: what the kid is doing, how the parents react, and how the kid receives that reaction. But at the same time, I am very aware of the fact that tomorrow it could be MY KID doing that exact same thing. There's no judgment in that respect, I just want to learn from it.

So basically I think it's really good to observe other kids. See what's normal to expect, behavior wise, from kids who are older than yours so that when your kid does that thing it's not unexpected and you've already thought about how you're going to handle it. That's one thing I remember from Making Children Mind (Leman). At least, I think it was that book. Where he said that kids feel more secure when their parents know how to handle them. It makes them think, 'It's no big deal for mom and dad to deal with me. I'm not a problem for them.' Now obviously there are times when Mary sees that I don't know what to do because you can't be ready for everything! But I do think it's good to be as prepared as you can be!

Summer of Learning

2011-02-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ian and I have had some rather funny conversations lately about his goals for the summer. Let me start by saying we always have themes for our summers. 2006 was the summer of love because that's the summer we got married and went to Alaska for our honeymoon
2007 was the summer of travel because we went like a million places that summer, including Montana with some awesome friends
2008 was the summer of joy because that's when we had Mary
2009 was the summer of the preemptive strike (Ian picks the names). It was called this because our goal that summer was to spend a lot of time with our high school friends teaching them about Jesus and training them for their next year. That year Ian had learned a lot about leadership and training so he wanted to apply it
And for the life of me I can't remember what the theme was last summer, but here is one of my favorite pictures from last summer:

2010 might have been the summer of happiness. Along the same lines of the summer of joy except this time little Nono came along!
Anyways, Ian has decided that this summer is the summer of learning:) Recently Ian has been noticing some talents in other guys that he would like to learn. For example, our friend Mark bakes bread and makes home made beer and root beer so Ian wants to set up a time with him to learn how he makes bread. Our friend Eber is an excellent cook and Ian can't even make spaghetti without burning the sauce, so Ian wants to learn some go to dishes. Our friend Jacob is extra handy and can fix almost anything so Ian wants to learn how to do electrical work from him. He told me he wants to finish the big basement room all by himself, but with Jacob's supervision on the electrical stuff:) And our friend Jim Bob Duggar (OK, he's not our friend in real life, but how AWESOME would that be?) has no debt and supports his family off of real estate and stock market investments. So Ian wants to learn how to invest some of the money we have saved.

I'm a fan of all these goals...I'll let you know how they go!