One More Room

Another room is completed! Silas' room has been waiting on its finishing touches for a number of months now. I finally took some time to do the little projects I wanted to do for his room. His room ended up with an Eric Carle/animals theme.

We found the Brown Bear, Brown Bear wall stickers at Target. They are what started the room's theme. My mom made the quilt hanging over the rocking chair, which I bought off of Craigslist.

The picture on the left was something my mom made for my sister's and my room when we were babies. I recovered the lampshade with brown dotted fabric. It previously was blue with little white hearts. I made the two framed animals on the wall. They were super simple just two different fabrics and some heat 'n bond. The frames I purchased for $1 total at the thrift store in town.

Mike's mom had found these Eric Carle number flashcards at a garage sale not knowing that Silas' room had Eric Carle wall stickers. The set of cards is now missing three! I used the matching fabric from the lampshade and animal pictures to make little ribbon hangers.

And, one last picture. I had posted previously about our finished living room, but the flooring was still carpet. This is the living room now that the new floor is in. We LOVE it!

Our Poor Kitty

Gloria has had a sad week. She had to go to the vet to be groomed. We don't know what caused it, but Gloria had an area of fur matted together on her lower back that we had tried to clean and have cut out in the past. Nothing has worked to take care of it. So, we moved on to the last option - having her shaved. It was a rough experience for Gloria. She didn't like being at the vet and had to be sedated to be groomed. She was not a happy kitty. Gloria is finally becoming herself again now two days later. I think she may be a little self-conscious about her new 'do. She is our little lion!

Our First Garden Produce

Yum! Since this picking, we have gotten one more tomato and one more meal of green beans. The other night, it was so wonderful to pick the beans then clean, cook, and eat them within an hour. Can't get more fresh than that!

What I Want To Remember

There is no other way to say it than this, we are in a difficult season of instruction and discipline with Jonah. Yes, he's 2 1/2 and there are stereotypes of what a 2 1/2 year old is supposed to be like. But, we aren't giving him any excuses. He has an amazingly sweet heart and is so teachable and malleable. So, we are trying our best to be diligent in our responsibility to train our little boy to know and love the Lord and to walk in his ways. Yet, this season is difficult. Thankfully, we have a few friends who have been such an encouragement to us - ones who have seen the fruit of their instruction and discipline in their teen and pre-teen children and one who is right there with us in the trenches fighting the battle (from a spiritual perspective)!

I hope that we come away from this season of life with things we have learned and, prayerfully, with a boy who will grow to walk with the Lord, but I don't want to think back on this season only remembering the constant instruction, the repetitive discipline, and the frustration that comes when we forget the reason why we are doing what we are doing. I want to remember the amazingly sweet heart our Jonah had at 2 1/2.

This is what I want to remember:

+ that he LOVES people. It doesn't matter their age, their gender, or their cognitive level - Jonah loves them. At our church, there is an elderly MR man. Every Sunday, Jonah runs to the door to shake his hand and say hi to him. This is completely unprompted by us, and this man enjoys seeing Jonah. He says to us every week, "Your boy likes to shake my hand." What a joy to us and to him!

+ that he LOVES greeting time at church. Jonah will go around the sanctuary shaking hands with everyone...even if his hands are sticky from a sucker.

+ that he can sing all three verses to Before the Throne of God Above and will correct me if I make a mistake on any of the lyrics.

+ that he is very social. We had people from church over for lunch on Sunday. During a lull in the conversation, Jonah tried to start a new conversation by saying, "My favorite show is SuperWhy!"

+ that he LOVES having people over to our house. If he knows people are coming over, he will stand at the door to greet. This past spring when I hosted a Bible study, Jonah stood at the door welcoming everyone into his house. It gave me the freedom to continue getting ready or to talk with the ladies who were already there.

+ that he seems to think he belongs with the teens at church. A couple of weeks ago, I watched him follow two teens into the youth room for Sunday School. When I went to get him for his class, I found him sitting on one of the chairs waiting for the class to start. This week, he was telling the teens about our new minivan and was pushing one of the girls around in a wheelchair that belonged to another one of the teens.

+ that he was so excited to wear his first stick-on tattoo last weekend and went around showing it to people calling it his "tat" even though we had never referred to it by that slang name.

+ that he has overcome all of his fears of playground equipment. He will slide down the tallest slide and go across the unsteady bridge. Last night, we ran into friends at the park that is kitty corner to our house. It only has a couple of swings, a jungle gym, and a merry-go-round, so we don't go there very often. But, he wanted to play there with his friends (a 7th grader, 3rd grader, and 1st grader!). He climbed to the top of the jungle gym - it was only as tall as me, and he rode on the merry-go-round STANDING UP!

+ that he thinks we live in "Kenbraska" (Kentucky+Nebraska)

+ that he calls two of the girls that have babysat a few times "cool."

+ that today when I came home from work, he opened the door to the garage to see me and exclaimed, "I have a special song for you!" Apparently, he had been waiting for me to come home all day so I would play a certain song for him on the piano.

+ that he is super ticklish and has the best giggles (and occasionally even a snort) when being tickled!

+ that he tries to delay nap and bed time as much as possible and will often yell, "I want to tell you something" just as we walk out the door. If we stop and ask him what he wanted to say, his response is usually, "I love you."

+ that he loves to listen to any kind of music and seems to especially like a song by David Crowder called "Our Love is Loud" as he often requests it.

+ that he LOVES the Berenstain bears and often says he lives in Bear Country and wants to go visit "Gramps and Gran." He also thinks he needs to go outside "bearfoot"  because that is how the Berenstain Bears do it.

+ that he is learning to hide God's word in his heart and is excited to recite the scripture he knows.

What a blessing Jonah is to us! That is what I want to always remember.

A Few Pics of Sy

Silas Pictures

I decided to try my hand at taking Silas' one year pictures on my own. Because of our busy month of July and weather not cooperating, it took us until last Sunday night to get them done. I know next to nothing about photography and even less than that about photo editing. So, the pics aren't great, but we had a fun evening out together on a beautiful evening, nonetheless!

Here's our sweet Silas at 1 year old (actually 13 months) --

Jonah Funnies

Jonah has an amazing imagination and is really developing in his cognition/reasoning skills. Everyday he says something that makes me wonder how he came up with it. I love these developing abilities. Life is never dull! Here are a few of the things he has come up with recently:

Evidence of Reasoning: We were all going to watch a video together the other night before bed. Since Silas was watching too, I was suggesting videos to Jonah that Silas might like. Our conversation went like this:
Me: "Would you like to watch Baby Signing Time?"
Jonah: "No. Baby Signing Time is for babies. I am not a baby. I am a boy. It's not called BOY signing time. It's called BABY signing time."
He was right on. No arguing that one!


Evidence of a Continued Need for Development of Reasoning:
A brief conversation while dealing with an issue of disobedience-
Me: "What can you do when it's really, really tough for you to obey Mommy?"
Jonah: "Disobey."


Example of Jonah's Imagination:
When we went in to get Jonah out of bed this morning, the first thing he said was...
Jonah: "I brought Mommy to the earth."
Me: "What did we do then?"
Jonah: "We flied to the moon."
Me: "Oooh. Cool! What did we see there?"
Jonah: "Planets, stars, and a rocketship!"


A Bit of Jonah's Humor:
The other day at nap time Jonah requested to have his stuffed animal Cookie Monster in bed with him. He usually sleeps with 3-5 stuffed animals. When I gave it to him he exclaimed, "Now there is a MONSTER in my bed!"


Irregular past tense verbs are really difficult for Jonah right now (as they should be). We have had a few funny conversations with them recently.

First one: Jonah is now able to "read" simple 3-4 letter words by saying the letter sounds and then blending them. I was writing some on the driveway for him to figure out. He is really good at familiar words and has to take a little more time with unfamiliar words. One word I wrote was "SOD." He sounded it out and blended it correctly. Then, he got so excited and said, "Mommy, I sawed a car go by."

Second one: A teen from our church named Doug came to our house last night selling something as a fundraiser for the school's football team. Jonah is really into knowing people's names, so he asked and confirmed Doug's name a number of times during our short conversation. This morning, Jonah picked up the fundraising card off of the table and asked, "Mommy, is this from Dig?"


It is amazing to watch and be a part of Jonah's development at this stage in life. Although there are things that are difficult about 2 1/2, I love each day with Jonah and am soooo thankful that I am blessed to be a mostly-stay-at-home mom!

FYI

So glad that you have joined us at our new blog! I have written a number of blogs to catch up on life over the past month. I would suggest that you start reading at the oldest blog and proceed to the most recent. Chronological order...it makes sense.

A Sight I Love to See

Slowing Down

This week has finally been a time to slow down and catch up on things that haven't gotten done in awhile. I am still quite far behind and am really looking forward to next week when there is nothing "extra" on the schedule. We haven't had a "normal" week since before our vacation to Minnesota in the middle of June. I am excited for time at home, playing with the boys, and doing a better job of managing our home. And, I am excited to keep going with a few house projects that we didn't quite complete while my parents were here. We need to put up some shelves in our entry closet. And, I started painting our kitchen last week and have just two walls done. I am painting our kitchen and dining room a color called Kimono Red. So far, it looks really good! I am pleased with the color and two coats have seemed to be enough on the previously white walls. I am so excited for when these projects will be done so I can clean up the house a bit!

The past few days have been fun as it has cooled down and I have been home. On Wednesday, the boys and I spent some time at the city park. It was so fun as Jonah is now almost completely independent. He still needs some help climbing on a couple things and with swinging, but he can mostly just do his own thing. What freedom (but definitely less exercise) for me!

Thursday we went down to the zoo in Lincoln. It is a small zoo, perfect for the boys at their ages. We can get through the whole zoo in less than 2 hours. Jonah had fun as always, and this time Silas got really into it. He would get so excited, point, and exclaim "Ooooooh!" at the animals.

Yesterday, we made it back to the library to pick out some new books. In the evening, the library sponsored a supper and kids' concert in the park. It was a beautiful night! We met some new friends there and enjoyed visiting and watching our kids enjoy the music and the playground.

I am looking forward to church tomorrow. Mike is starting a new sermon series on Ruth, which is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And, it is my month to plan music and play piano. We had a great practice today and are excited to lead the church in worship in the morning.

Everything we have done over the past two months has been lots of fun, but we are thrilled about moving back into a slower season of life. Although they aren't super exciting, I cherish our days at home. "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

Pics from our time at the zoo:

OOOOH!

Checking out the armadillo

Feeding the goats - a favorite activity

Jonah really enjoyed the butterfly pavillion

Cooling down in the mist

Silas got in on the misting, too

Jonah was soaked by the time he was done!

Growing but not as big as an eagle...yet!

Another Busy Week

The week after VBS my parents came back to Wahoo to do more house projects and babysitting. Although I usually just work one half day a week, I worked a full week last week as the SLP I work with was on vacation. So, the boys got to spend the week with Grandma. Grandpa spent the week tearing up linoleum in the entry and in our kitchen and replacing it with tile. It looks soooo much better now! The task of getting up the old flooring was horrendous in the kitchen. I think my dad spent more time trying to get it up than he did laying the new tile. We spent the week with the refrigerator in our dining room and the stove in the garage. Any cooking had to be done by slow cooker or microwave. Kudos to my mom for rising to the challenge and making great meals all week! It was an extremely hot week, so the boys went out for short walks but mostly stayed inside. The county fair was going on during the week. We didn't make it to the fairgrounds, but we did go to the parade downtown. It was one HOT night. We were running late and didn't get there in time to find any shade. I took a few pictures and with each one Jonah's cheeks got redder and redder. The boys got lots of candy, more than I can ever remember getting in a parade. And, most of it is still sitting in a bowl in the cupboard. Both of the boys enjoyed watching the bands, the floats, and, of course, the trucks and tractors!

Lots of people handed out freezies - great for cooling down

Sy liked them too!

And wanted to hold his own

And did okay until blue raspberry juice was going everywhere

And got really upset when we took it away. Poor boy!

Jonah had fun even though he was super overheated

He and Mike ate lots of freezies - see all those in Mike's hand?

At the end, I remembered I had an ice pack with for Sy's supper

Perfect way to cool down!

Son Surf Beach Bash

The Monday after we got back from our short trip to Minnesota (can you tell that July was CRAZY around here?!?!), our church hosted Vacation Bible School. The theme was Son Surf Beach Bash. It was a GREAT week! One of the things that we really liked about the church when we were initially considering our church in Wahoo was that they had a thriving VBS program that ministered to many children in the community. And, two of the other evangelical churches in town work with our church to accomplish the task. I am not sure exactly what our numbers were, but I know that there were days where we had over 80 children from ages 4-6th grade in our church building learning about the Lord! I had the great pleasure of helping with the 1st & 2nd grade class. The teacher was the pastor's wife from the CMA church in town. It was such a blessing to work with her and get to know her more. We had 24+ children in our class! I was so encouraged and even challenged by some of the questions these kids came up with. And, what a ministry this VBS week truly is! The majority of the children who attend either go to mainline churches or are unchurched.

Of course, Jonah continued with his pattern of having impeccable timing of getting sick and developed a fever and intestinal issues the first day of VBS. He and Mike stayed home Tuesday morning. Then, Silas ended up getting sick on Wednesday. He had a high fever (103+) with no other symptoms for the rest of the week. We ended up making a trip to the doctor Friday morning. They tested for strep throat and looked him over but thought it was probably a virus. Nothing like making a busy week busier!

On the last day of VBS (Friday), the kids put on a little program for their parents/grandparents and then the church hosted a hot dog lunch afterward. It was so wonderful to see the church packed with people celebrating a week in which 80+ children were exposed to the gospel daily.

Opening meeting on the first day of VBS

My 1st & 2nd graders the first day

The sanctuary filled with families on Friday morning

My class performing J-E-S-U-S for the audience

This sweet girl from church volunteered to watch the boys all week. They had a great week, too!