Nono

Ian's nickname for Noah is nono. At first I didn't like it, but now Mary says it too and I find myself saying it! I was thinking today how unfortunate it is for him to be born second. How unfortunate it is for any child really. I don't give him as much attention as I gave Mary as a baby. Nor do I put as much thought into what he's doing or isn't doing as far as milestones and developmental achievements. But the amount of time I spend worrying about development has no relation at all to the love I have for my kids. I worried about and fussed over Mary all the time. I only do that a little bit with Noah. But I love them equally.

Then I was thinking God didn't mess up by giving him to me. And that includes the fact that he planned Noah to be our second kid. That's a very encouraging fact. There's a reason Noah was born second and it will surely be a factor in shaping who he becomes. He benefits from the fact that I am much more knowledgeable and experienced as a mom now. He also benefits from all the loving he gets from his sister. So I guess I'm OK with it after all!

Last weekend

I think I'm fully recovered from last weekend! It was a great weekend overall, but it involved a lot of driving and not a lot of sleep. Noah and I went with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Tommy to Georgia for my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful little island they got married on and the place we stayed had bikes. So I got two opportunities to ride around the island and I took them! One was at sunrise so that was amazing. Worth missing sleep for sure:) Here are some pictures of me and baby boy:


And here are two from the wedding. It was my second shot at being a wedding photographer and I have to say I think they turned out well. I'm not done editing yet, but I think Val will really like them. This is just a taste:) I'll let Val reveal the rest to the world if she'd like!

C is for Cookie

This week we are working on the letter C. We have now watched the C is for Cookie video about 30 times today. After the first time we were both hooked. That song is funny! A few of my favorite lines are: "Cookie starts with C. Let's think of other things that start with C? Oh who cares about other things!" and "the moon sometimes looks like a C, but you can't eat that!" HAHAHA. I highly recommend this video:


Mary just keeps saying "COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE C!"

More books

I'm reading two books currently. Well really only reading one, kind of fed up with the other. The one I'm enjoying is Family Traditions. The thing I don't like about it is that the first 50 pages (not an over exaggeration) are all about the definition and importance of tradition in your family. You know, I wouldn't have bought a book called family traditions if I didn't think they were important! So the first 50 pages were convincing me of something I already believed...but now I'm past that and I'm really enjoying it. It's more practical now which is what I generally like. I read the chapter on Holiday traditions and really liked it. Did you know that St. Patrick was British? And he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland. He escaped and went back to Britain only to feel God's call on his life to return to Ireland and tell people about Jesus. That's sweet! So the book has really good ideas on how to incorporate things like that into fun activities for the family. I'm liking it.

The other is Shepherding a Child's Heart. I almost didn't put the link to it because you really don't need to buy it. Here's his entire message (keep in mind I've only read three fourths of the book though):

- the only worthy goal in raising your children is to do it all for the glory of God.
- if you consider yourself a Godly parent you must spank your kids.

While I agree with the first part, you really don't need to blather on about it for the first half of the book! I get it. It is very good to have that point reinforced, but geez, I was hoping the book would say a little more. And to be fair, I think he will go into just HOW to do that towards the end of the book, but so far it's just a mantra that he's repeated over and over again. And as for the second point, I'm still trying to decide what I think about it. I really don't believe that spanking is "mandated" by God as Tripp likes to put it again and again. OH! And AGAIN! He's a rather repetitive writer. That's annoying to me more than the fact that I disagree with him. I have, however, come to see spanking in a different light, so maybe that's a plus from this book. So...basically, read this book if you really want someone to beat into your brain the two points mentioned above:)

Maybe I should do another post just on spanking? I really need to get some thoughts out of my head. I don't know if it's something we should do or not? It's definitely caught a bad rep in our culture, but what does the bible say? I think the bible supports using disciplinary methods that are going to be painful for the child (physically or otherwise). But does that mean I NEED to spank? Not sure on that. Is it mandated by God? (laughing a little in disbelief) People use the "rod" verses a lot to support spanking, I'm just not sure they mean that we HAVE to as Tripp states...hmmm. And I'm not sure those verses are ONLY talking about spanking. It seems a little narrow for their purpose. I can thank Tripp for adding more confusion to my life. I don't say that sarcastically either. I'm really grateful to people who have different opinions than me, generally speaking. We need differences so we can learn from each other!

Sibling Love:)

Messed around with some of the actions on photoshop for these pictures. Kind of fun:) After Mary woke up she really wanted to hold Noah. She's always been very gentle with him so I went for it...and got some cute pics!

Neiderman Farm

This weekend we went to the Neiderman Family Farm in Liberty. It is such a cool place! I think Mary had a really good time, and got thoroughly worn out:)

At least she's looking toward the camera...

Here's the smile:)

This thing was awesome:



It was 85 degrees yesterday! Where's the fall weather when you need it:) Noah was getting hot so we took off his clothes. His job was just to look cute

Red door today

Today at Red Door Josh talked about Nehemiah 6. For background, Nehemiah was the cup bearer to the king (which apparently was a big time job back then, something like a cabinet member to the president or a congressman or something). Anyway, he left that position to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Josh focused on this verse:
Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"
He said that we all have things that we're doing (he focused on jobs) but those things will just be jobs with no real purpose until what God is doing meets what we're doing. He pointed out that Nehemiah left a position of extreme importance to become a wall builder, then these people were oppressing him and basically saying, "hey, stop doing that and come hang out with us. That's not very important". His response was awesome: I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. He knew how important his work was because he KNEW that it was what God had called him to and he saw the eternal purpose in it.

Josh talked about stay at home moms a few times (probably because there are a lot at Red Door) and at one point he was going through different jobs and positions in life and he said, "you're not just a stay at home mom. You are a person committed to training and teaching the next generation to know and do the works God has called them to." That's my paraphrase cause I can't remember exactly, but I thought the whole talk was really great. After graduating with two bachelors degrees I've often heard, "So you're just staying home now?" It's easy to feel the pressure of society (even if it's only in my head sometimes) telling me that I could do something much more important. Today Josh encouraged us to remember that when what we do meets what God is doing we have to remind ourselves that we are doing a great work and we cannot come down from it. Even if what we're doing doesn't seem like it's such a great work.

This is so good to hear for a person with young kids. It can be easy to feel like what I do has no eternal purpose sometimes. But the truth is that without doing what I do, Ian, Mary and Noah's lives would be drastically different. If I didn't stay home with Mary and Noah they would turn out to be completely different people. There's a reason God has me here and even if I'd decided to become an actuary at some huge company and made a big salary, it wouldn't be more significant than what I'm doing now. Sorry world, I'm doing a great work, and I can't come down!