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Cooking with your toddler

2012-01-21T22:44:00.000-05:00

If you are anything like me, the hour before dinner is the witching hour. I am trying to get supper on the table, keep the teething baby happy and occupy my toddler so she doesn't trash the house right before my husband walks through the door. I also have the goal of tidying up the house (at least somewhat) before we all sit down to dinner, so that adds one more thing to the "to-do" list, and everyone tends to be somewhat grouchy because they are hungry and tired.

So why would I want to add something else to the mix? Why would I cook with my toddler when it certainly would get done faster if I do it myself? Well, at the very least, it does keep her occupied, but far greater are the benefits than just that! She is learning valuable work at an age when everything is like a fun game. She is experiencing healthy food and making her more likely to eat it since she helped in its preparation. Best of all, she and I are bonding during our time together -- mother and daughter -- which is precious!

Here are some of my tips for making cooking with your toddler more manageable so that you can enjoy this time of teaching and learning together. WHAT you cook is up to you!

1. Throw away your concerns of things being perfect. Guess what? Your kiddo is probably going to spill. Oh well!! Shreds of cheese may fall to the ground. Oh well! When Susie stirs, I can pretty much guarantee that she will slosh a bit. After getting wet a few times, she's realized that she needs to use a bit of a lighter touch! Decide ahead of time to instruct in a sweet and patient voice and be ready to laugh if things get a bit messy. You don't want to teach your child that cooking is about perfection and they cannot please your demands by gasping every time they reach for the spoon.

2. The slow cooker is your friend! I finally joined the rest of the majority of American home cooks and got a crock pot for Christmas. It's really great for toddler cooking because it's not hot (until you turn it on) and usually things are getting dumped into it cold, in random order and there is lots of stirring involved (my daughter's favorite part of "making"). You can make something earlier in the day, let your child stir till their hearts' content while you wash the dishes, and then you are FREE as a bird during the witching hour except maybe heating up some bread! I am determined to use the crock pot as much as possible during this stage because I can chop and she can do the rest!

3. Food prep -- last night I made egg tacos, and did not have much for Susie to help with. So I gave her bowls and had her fill them with the toppings -- cheese, lettuce (it was a package of pre-washed greens), avocado, etc. Now, normally, I do not ALWAYS put things out in bowls because that is a step I tend to skip so save on dishes, but it gave her a job, and she REALLY LIKED IT! Plus we were having company, so might as well make it nice.

4. Give yourself time -- I've found that it will probably take a little longer to cook when I am instructing and overseeing Susie's help. So I just plan on starting earlier. Many things can stay warm in the oven while you wait for dinner time. You can also split up your cooking time, if you need to keep an eye on the stove like this -- I tell Susie that I'm going to need her help making supper when the timer rings. She can play or read books or whatever until it rings, but then I'll bring in her climbing thing and have her help me. This works great, because it keeps her from pulling my legs and saying "I want to help you cook" while I'm frying tortillas or something because she knows she can help me a little later. Then I get done the stuff only I can do, and I'm free-er to oversee her work.

5. Bring in the whole family -- so in my case, this would mean the baby. Now sometimes when we cook in the crockpot, it's during his morning nap, so this would not apply (that's actually a FANTASTIC time to cook!). But if we are fixing supper in the late afternoon, I drag his seat into my crowded kitchen and give him measuring cups, a wisk, or a wire pastry cutter to clank around and gnaw on. He can't quite snack yet, but I do pop Cheerios in one at a time if he's really fussy. I have worn him in a sling while I cook, but now he's pretty grabby, so I'll need to figure out a way to hold him in the back so he can just watch. That may or may not work! If you have other kids, then you can give them jobs while still letting the littler one help. I had my niece who is five do all the dumping and let Susie do the stirring (it's nice to have an accurate dumper -- haha!). Sing together, talk about the food, chat about how fun it is to make supper for daddy, or whoever will be eating at your table. Susie often pretends she is cooking for family members who live far away.

Susie in her mommy helper aka "climbing fing"

6. Safety and cleanliness -- these are probably two big objections to letting really small kids help with food, but it's actually a great chance to educate them on these things. So when I let Susie whisk eggs, I emphasized that eggies could make us sick if we got them on us and that she needed to make the whisk touch the bottom of the bowl (I also gave her my largest bowl so she would be less likely to slosh). I don't let her eat cookie dough, but I do let her taste just about anything safe. She has a great "mommy helper" that her grandpa built her for Christmas that I bring into the kitchen while we cook. It is much better than standing on a chair, and this means I do not have to bring all the food to the table (which is lower, allowing her to kneel) in order for her to see it. When she is up in that, it also means she is not underfoot, so I can open and close the oven without doing the "blind spot check" like I'm changing lanes in traffic. :)

Stirring the lentils

I hope this is helpful to someone! Imagine all the colors, flavors, textures, fine motor skills, language, and social skills your little one can learn in the kitchen! Please post your ideas here if you have any!

Keeping Memories

2012-01-20T16:55:00.000-05:00

I have made baby books for each of my children, and of course have framed pictures of them everywhere, but I wanted to post an idea I had for keeping a few of their special baby things for them to have when they become parents.

In each box I have saved a few things from the hospital and a few really special baby outfits. They are things that I would let a sibling wear (if they have another brother or sister) but probably would not lend out to others. They are set aside for Susie and Chip to keep. I will probably add a couple more things as time goes on (like shoes or a favorite book), but for now I've got this at least.

The picture I have is not awesome because I can't find my camera charger and had to take this with my phone. I labeled the boxes with baby cards I'd saved (I'm a borderline packrat when it comes to sentimental items). I'm so happy with my precious boxes!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2011-12-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

Making salt dough to play with and make into ornaments

A few of our activities this week:

Dutch spiced cookies made with our clay stamps -- baked and . . .

cookies packaged for neighbor gifts!

gifts all wrapped!

Reading her last Advent book

We are just WORN OUT! :) Ready to relax and enjoy Christmas

Advent Goings-On

2011-12-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

I have been neglectful in posting some of our fun Advent activities mostly because we've been extra busy and also because I have been getting very little sleep the past week or so. Nonetheless, I didn't want to go too long before I shared some of the things we did that were really special to Susie.

1. She has really loved doing the Advent candles at mealtimes. Whatever meal is our "sit at the table together" meal (sometimes lunch, sometimes supper), we light the number of candles for whatever week of Advent it is. She is just starting to understand numbers, so counting the candles is great. We say "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men" as I light them. I figured it would be an easy way to learn that verse by saying it every day. I really should add another verse -- she knows this one so well. :)

Chip checking out the nativity and books

2. Of course she has loved unwrapping books. I give her one every Sunday and then another at some point in the week. We keep them under the tree by the play nativity set so she can look at them as much as she wants (and keeping them central has encouraged her to reach for them over and over). I realized a couple years ago that what I put under the tree seems to be the biggest deal. So if there is a big pile of presents, of course that's the focus! Instead, we have the nativity for her to play with, and a big box for all the pieces and her new books. (There are a few presents, just to clarify).

3. I printed these off for her thinking she could color them each week, but instead, I let her get out her watercolor paints and make them really special works of art. They are! She loves to paint and really has pretty good technique with her brush. After they dry, I've been hanging them around the dining room so they are part of our Christmas decor.


Singing with Daddy under the tree

4. Singing -- oh goodness gracious. The girl loves her some Christmas Carols! Hark the Herald is her fave, but Away in a Manger, Joy to the World, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Silent Night are all being learned. She sings them at the drop of a hat. Hark is the best -- she knows every word to the first verse and most of the second. She found a microphone in Target while we were shopping the other day and stood and sang such a perfect performance that strangers were gathering to listen (she didn't see them or she would have stopped, I'm sure). I was actually in tears yesterday when I heard her singing the precious words "God and sinners reconciled" as she worked on her painting. So thankful that we celebrate such an earth-shattering thing at Christmas!

Please share what you are doing to make Christ the focus of your Advent season!

Photo Card

2011-12-06T20:12:00.001-05:00

Modern Christmas Christmas

Shutterfly Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

So Thankful

2011-11-23T17:27:00.000-05:00

My heart is filled with thankfulness. I love so much to look at my darling babies and memorize their tiny faces and sing out thanksgiving to the Lord for lending them to me -- sometimes out loud, sometimes just in my heart.

Susie and I have been enjoying the poem "Over the River and Through the Woods" -- I checked a copy out from the library that was illustrated with fantastic woodcuts. I'm very fond of woodcuts. Yesterday after we read it, we made pumpkin pie! She loves to "make" (aka cook), so it was so fun!

More Children's books for Christmas

2011-11-21T22:04:00.000-05:00

I was fine with just giving my kids 4 books during Advent this year, but now I've more than doubled the number I've collected due to discovering several old titles when visiting my family last weekend. I've also checked out a couple good library books that I MIGHT wrap up for Susie to open as well (why does that feel weird? It's not like I'm planning to keep it!). ;)

I wanted to share these other books we'll be reading starting just NEXT WEEK!

1. Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo -- the most lovely illustrations accompany this simple story of a girl inviting a poor homeless organ grinder and his monkey to her church's Christmas pageant. I'm a sucker for a story that touches on our prejudices -- I think children are more open to dialogue about this tendency than adults! The little girl has great joy when the man attends her pageant, and you see him welcomed in by the church at the end.

2. The Christmas Story by Jane Werner Watson illustrated by Eloise Wilkin (my favorite illustrator). I love how this little old Golden Book uses actual parts of Luke for the wording on the pages. I also love the illustrations. I've decided that I'm not taking issue with halos at this point in time. Maybe down the road it will matter to me, but for now, it's fine.

3. The Night Before Jesus by Herbert Brokering -- this is an out of print title published by Concordia. It does rhyme and obviously is trying to follow the pattern of the Clement Heard poem, but it's actually pretty good. I like the way it emphasizes that we are NOW in the "night before Jesus" because earth is still longing for his coming -- his second coming. It makes a good one for Advent. I wonder how long my mom had this book stowed away. :)

4. Carol Time by Brimax publishers -- this little board book has the words to several Christmas Carols with precious little illustrations. This publisher is from Australia, so I don't remember where I got this, but I think someone passed it on after Christmas last year. I just refound it. I will be using this when teaching Susie Christmas songs. We sing carols around the tree before bed -- a tradition started by my parents when I was little.

5. A Stable in Bethlehem by Joy Hulme -- this "First Little Golden Book" is a counting book and counts down to the ONE baby all the others have come to worship. There is a newer edition than the one I am linking to, but this is the one I have, copyright 1989. It's not super deep, but it does in fact point to Christ. Great for very little ones.

Since I will be traveling for Thanksgiving, I guess I better get to wrapping!

Come to the Cradle

2011-11-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share a bit of what the Lord has taught me through the past six months in caring for my baby. Yesterday at his six month doctor appointment, I discovered he'd gained over ten pounds since we brought him home from the hospital. Despite the fact that Chip is not a great sleeper, he has an incredibly cheery disposition and has never been sick. My pediatrician affirmed my efforts to exclusively nurse him as much as I have because of his good health and growth. Of course I would love it if my baby slept through the night. But he doesn't. Not even close. But each night as I drag my sleepy head off it's pillow to respond to his cry for me, I have to remind myself that I have chosen this to care for my baby. It is easy to be tempted to feel sorry for myself, to complain about my lack of sleep, but in truth, I would not trade that path I have taken! It would be wrong for me to complain when the Lord has been so good to us, blessing us with Chippy's life and health. I have prayed for more sleep, and for the most part, the Lord has answered that prayer with "no, not yet". But truly, the Lord is good even when I'm tired. I have prayed for wisdom over and over and tonight when I put Chip to bed, I turned on the CD "Come to the Cradle" by Michael Card. I used to play this for Susie every single night, and the words are just wonderful. Inside the album jacket, though, I found this encouraging word, and it brought tears to my eyes:

"For the cry of a baby in the middle of the night is not simply a summons to change a diaper -- it contains within it more than our ears can hear. It is a call to leave the cozy self-interest of our warm beds; to come, saying no to a thousand voices that tell us to remain where we are comfortable It is a call to come away from ourselves. No one who has ever heeded this call will tell you it was in vain." (emphasis mine)

And that is me. I have gone, night after night to feed my baby when he wakes, and now I look at him, round and chubby and cheerful and know that I have done the right thing. The Lord is good to bless me with this kind of encouragement, and I hope it blesses you as well.

Thank you, Michael Card for writing beautiful songs and words that feed this tired mommy's soul! Let me recommend his book Sleep Sound in Jesus which has the words to other lullabies by Card as well as outstanding short devotionals for parents that have fed my soul so well as I stumbled through the earliest months of having a baby.

Some Advent Activities

2011-11-06T00:29:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd wrap up my posts on planning for Advent by sharing some of the activities I'm hoping to do with Susie (and Chip, at times) this year. My children are very young, so this won't be what everyone would want to do, but perhaps it will help get your ideas flowing. As I mentioned before, I've been writing down in my planner something for each day to make the entire season of Advent a celebration, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent.

That Sunday we will get out our regular Nativity set, candles and do our Advent Scripture reading. This will also be the first day Susie gets to open a book. The next day is when we will put up the Christmas tree, and the day after that is when we will get out the toy Nativity set and a few days after that, the Advent calendar. I feel like having a good amount of Christmas decorations beautifying our home increases a child's awareness that we are celebrating something special!

On the days that we do not have a scheduled event, I am writing "Advent craft" on these days. I have started gathering some fun craft ideas that I think Susie will enjoy. Here are a few:

This free downloadable preschool pack has lots of activities with colors, numbers, letters, etc, all based on people and characters in the nativity story. I'm not sure we will do all of it, but it's very cute, and I think Susie will dig it.

I want to make salt dough ornaments with Susie and Chip's little hand prints on them. I found the directions for the dough on this blog.

This blog post has quite a few adorable craft ideas for nativity scenes, including a gingerbread nativity, one with people made from toilet paper rolls, etc. I'm planning to have Susie and Chip act out the nativity story as well, complete with costumes (like she shows in the pictures) even though I only have enough children to play Mary and baby Jesus. :)

Here are some great little lessons written by Amy Brown (who I know from my days as a student in SWI at SBTS) as well as Advent coloring pages on "Ministry to Children". I definitely plan to use coloring pages! Susie is into coloring big time. I like how Amy focuses on different characters in the nativity but points to Christ each time! These could easily be tweaked for family devotions, or even just playtime with the Fisher Price nativity set.

I don't currently have a structured plan for teaching Scripture memory or Christmas carols, but I've found with Susie it works well to just go with the flow. We say verses at dinnertime, before bed, in the car. . . wherever. We sing while she goes potty, cleans up toys, in the car, wherever. I want to make learning enjoyable, not burdensome for her at this point. When I was a child, we sang Christmas carols around the tree before bed, and I've done that the past couple years with Susie, so I'm planning to do so again this year. I feel like making up hand motions helps young children with memorizing -- songs, verses, etc. So we do lots of motions. My motions are pretty predictable, but if I come up with anything really fun this year, I'll try to post it here.

Pepper into all of this some family outings to see lights, special baking projects and most likely shopping for gifts! My thinking in taking Susie shopping (especially for other children) is for her to see things that look pleasing to her, and to buy them to give away to someone else. I cannot give her a heart that is not prone to selfishness, but I can try to foster a love for giving. In the past, we have shopped for a child Susie's age from the Angel tree or elsewhere, and if our finances allow, I hope to do that again this year. I want her to pick out gifts for others that we won't even be able to enjoy seeing them open, and certainly won't be able to play with herself. :)

Anybody out there do a Jesse Tree or celebrate Saint Nick's day? I'm thinking about both of those, but maybe not for this year. Still have time!

Christmas (or Advent) books for Kids

2011-11-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

In general I think it is easier to find good Christmas books for children than, say, Easter or Lent books. Christmas -- a celebration to be sure, and one of a baby at that -- is just already closer to a child's level of understanding and enjoyment. So there are many more quality books that could be written about, but I'm going to share the ones I have for my kids this year. We will continue our tradition of giving a book to each child during Advent and pulling out the books they were given in past years as well. Since this year we have a total of 4 books, I'm wrapping them up and letting Susie open one each Sunday of Advent.

For Chip -- Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck illustrated by Felicia Bond. I stumbled upon this book and ordered him a good used board book copy and I am delighted by it! It reads well and has sweet illustrations -- just perfect for a baby's first Christmas book. Susie will love it as well, and will probably memorize it since it rhymes. I tend to look for books by Christian writers/publishers, but not in this case. It's truly not important to explore the depths of the incarnation with an infant, so I'm happy with this little book that ends with "I am the baby asleep in the hay; I am the reason for Christmas day".

For Susie -- Song of the Stars, A Christmas Story by Sally Lloyd-Jones. This is a new title just out this year and it's very good. I checked it out of the library just to be sure it was going to be on Susie's level, and I would say it is a touch above her, but it's so beautiful and she enjoyed it anyway. I'm getting my copy from LifeWay with a 33% off coupon tomorrow which is a better price than Amazon! As Sally Lloyd-Jones does so well, she has brought to life real drama and excitement that is particularly fitting for a book you'd read during Advent. All over the world creatures are announcing "it's time! It's time!" as the Savior is born. Younger children will enjoy all the animals in the pictures even if they can't grasp the idea of all creation yearning for Christ's arrival (and thus, his 2nd coming).

Two other titles I considered this year, and would still like to get down the road are Little One We Knew You'd Come also by Sally Lloyd-Jones (but out of print, bummer. . . gotta find out what the deal is with that) and Mary's Happy Christmas Day by Kathleen Bostrom. The former is a gorgeous hardcover with rich words and the latter looked like a cute board book for Chip (I have not read it in person, so don't bank on it being amazing! In this case, I am quite literally judging a book by its cover!).

I have written about the books I've given the past couple years in past posts, so I'm linking to those below. Keep in mind that I have a 2 year old, so we've done really young books! I tend to jump ahead of myself, but Lord willing we have many more years to get to those deeper things.

Here are links to what I have done for Advent in the past:
Last year
Pre-children years here and here (there are some kid-affiliated ideas in these posts)

Plan ahead for Advent

2011-11-02T15:28:00.000-04:00

I just love celebrating Advent, and focusing on the coming of Christ over the weeks before Christmas! It's not just "pre-Christmas" or some countdown to Santa coming, but a lovely celebration of Christ spread out over several weeks. I've started planning for our Advent celebrations already, and wanted to post some of my ideas to help you plan a Christ-focused holiday season!

First, on the 4 Sundays of Advent, I'm giving my kids their "new" Christmas books. I've chosen some really good children's books about CHRISTmas -- not Santa, Frosty, Christmas trees, or anything else -- and I'm going to wrap them up and let Susie open one each week (Chip just isn't old enough to care yet -- but I do have one specifically for him -- more about that later). I will also wrap up the 2 books Susie got the past 2 years during Advent to let her open. Also on those Sundays we will do Advent candles around our Nativity set. Haven't quite decided where we are going to put that yet, but I do want to reinstate that tradition this year -- I think Susie is old enough to enjoy this and be careful as well.

Second, I'm planning something (even a small something) special to do each day during Advent. For instance -- put up the tree/decorate for Christmas (what makes a celebration more celebratory than decorations?), get out the Little People nativity to play with, go caroling, shop for an Angel tree child, crafts, etc. I'm not saying that there will NEVER be anything Santa/Frosty/Reindeer in our Christmas season, but the things I am planning are not along those lines. They are focused on Christ's coming (and 2nd coming) and serving others and enjoying time together as a family. I've actually pulled out my planner and written in things to do. I still have more days to fill, but the point is that I'm planning now. When I remember being a child, and anticipating Christmas, I honestly have such warm memories for some of those days leading up to the Holiday where we did these things as a family. I want to help Susie create a category in her mind for Advent being special.

Third, Scripture memory and Christmas songs -- Susie has a quick memory and does well learning her verses for Sunday School and LOVES to learn songs. I'm going to do a little better capitalizing on this this year and work with her on memorizing portions of Luke 2 and as many carols as we can! We will sing around the tree before bed at night again . . . I'm not sure if we will ever get Susie to go to bed this year!

Fourth, we will use our new Advent calendar! My mother in law sent us this from Fisher Price last year, and I'm thinking Susie will be ALL ABOUT IT this year! I'm going to try to use this along with the words Noel Piper used with her Advent Calendar, since I LOST MINE!! :(

In the next several days, I will be posting some ideas for Christ-centered children's Christmas books and maybe some craft ideas I come across (on Pinterest, of course!).

The first Sunday of Advent this year is at the end of this month -- just 3+ weeks away -- so start planning now! What will you do?

Melt my heart

2011-10-24T22:43:00.000-04:00

I hope I see many many more scenes like this over the next several years. Of course, it may not be much longer that he'll be so absorbed by what she is "reading " to him, but I certainly hope so!

Some crafty stuff

2011-10-14T15:28:00.001-04:00

Like most of the world, I've gotten UTTERLY hooked on Pinterest. I opened my account on my birthday as a gift to myself. . . yeah, it was a good one. :) I have tried to attempt some of the project I found on there, and here are a couple pictures:

Chip is modeling the baby legwarmers I made him -- the accessory every cloth-diaper wearing baby needs. :) Any baby, really! I found the directions here, and it was SO easy.

Here's Sus dancing in the tutu I made her. Again, incredibly easy. This project does not require sewing.

I did sew this -- an apron made from an old t-shirt (I actually used 2 shirts to make it heavier). I got the directions from this tutorial. Making stuff from t-shirts is so fun! I have STACKS of old ones to use! Sewing the knit can be tricky, but you don't have to hem it.

I've done some other stuff, too, but not as cute as these (being modeled by my kids makes it cuter). :) I've got lots more plans as well!

Reading for Art appreciation

2011-09-21T22:36:00.000-04:00

Susie is a little artist. At about 18 months, she started drawing babies (that's what she told us they were) -- whole notebooks of circles with a line drawn down from them. Around 19 months she'd draw part of a face for you (like add a tongue to a smiley face you'd draw for her). By 20 months, she was obsessed with circles, and was drawing DARN good ones! She has always held her writing instrument correctly (except with sidewalk chalk -- too thick), and picks up on the instruction Josh gives her in a snap! The other night he was teaching her to do a tree and I heard her mutter to herself "line. . . line . . . scribble, scribble, scribble" as she tried to replicate it.

Susie drawing a face -- age 2

To encourage her in her artistic ways, I'm doing my best to expose her to great children's literature with great artwork. She's had quite a bit of that, of course, just naturally through the books she already reads, but now I'm being intentional to choose a range of artwork and ask her questions about the pictures after we enjoy the stories together. I also try to select something from the Caldecott award winners during our weekly library trips. Here are some of the books we've read so far (just been doing this for a couple weeks now):

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (an instant hit, of course! She's already asking for it back and we just returned it today.)

The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (VERY long, but she really liked it. . . I was a bit surprised, to be honest!)

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (she started drawing houses after this one)

Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field (I thought it was sweet and she's been quoting "let no danger come to fright" ever since)

The Three Little Pigs by David Wiesner (haven't read it yet -- but it doesn't look quite like my cup of tea. . . still, I want her to try out a range).

Count and See by Tana Hoban (love the black and white photographs -- so did Chip who joined us reading it -- and the urban setting of many of them).

A little board book of nursery rhymes illustrated by Tomie dePaola because she loves nursery rhymes and I like his illustrations.

SO MANY MORE I want to get! Do you have any favorite children's books because of the pictures?

Two and a Half

2011-09-20T21:26:00.000-04:00

Susie isn't quite two and a half yet, but I came across this poem, and it was so sweet I wanted to post it along with a picture or two of my precious girl.

Two and a Half

Author Unknown

Hold her a little longer

Rock her a little more

Tell her another story

(You've only told her four)

Let her sleep on your shoulder

Rejoice in her happy smile

She's only two and a half

For such a little while!

SAHM and a 4 month old

2011-09-13T22:41:00.001-04:00

I've been as happy as a clam the past month. . . working in my home full time. Cannot express how much I love being able to snuggle with my kids in the morning without the rush of needing to get out the door to work, spend as much time as I like playing with them, reading to them and just paying attention to them. This afternoon when Susie woke up from her nap, I climbed in her bed, lay down by her and read a whole stack of books to her while she sucked her thumb and turned the pages. I do not regret spending about an hour this way. :)

Chip is more darling than ever -- 4 months old. He weighs 12 lbs and 5 oz, which is EIGHT POUNDS more than he did at birth! WOO HOO! He's getting much stronger on his tummy and holds his head up looking around like a big baby. And on his 4 month birthday he LAUGHED for the first time! I was standing there with the camera in my hand and was able to turn it on and capture the moment as Josh made him laugh again and again.

What we've been up to

2011-08-13T16:41:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted. Here is what we are up to:

Susie -- using the big girl potty! She's done well, and usually has a selection of books to read while she's in there. :) She's also getting pretty great at "reading" out loud to Chip. She likes to read Dr. Seuss books, especially Green Eggs and Ham and The Ear Book. She can recognize the letters S, O, Y, X and E. I am not sure where she picked them all up!

Chip -- smiling, bouncy seat, tummy time and getting chubby. It's a full time job, and he's OH so sweet!

I'm reading Loving the Little Years and Give Them Grace right now. Both very good and encouraging. I'm getting ready to move to becoming a full time SAHM, which I'm really looking forward to! Big plans to read more and write more on the blog. But mainly. . . snuggle my kids and play with them more.

My story as a preemie mom

2011-07-19T13:25:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to write about my experience with having a preemie in the special care nursery for quite a while now, but having 2 little ones at home, I haven't been able to catch enough brain power to write about it. :) This is meant to encourage other moms who may find themselves in this situation unplanned. I'll put out a warning that there is going to be some breastfeeding info going down in this post, so if that does not apply to you, feel free to skip it! I am by no means an expert, but I do think I learned a few lessons that could be helpful to someone else in my place.

The story:
When my son was born at 35+ weeks, I figured he'd have a lengthier hospital stay and perhaps be put in a special nursery. Since I delivered at a hospital without a NICU, I was praying that he wouldn't move to the children's hospital downtown, and thankfully the Lord answered that prayer! My hospital did have a special care nursery, however, and babies taken there are obviously guarded more rigorously, but not having been in that situation, I did not know what the set up would be. He had to stay in the SCN and I could come to visit him there, but he was not able to come to my room with me. After my c-section I held him and nursed him in recovery, and then he was admitted to the SCN. My husband walked down to see him later that night since I could not go in my big bed since it was during a shift change. I told my nurse that I'd like to go down as soon as I was allowed out of bed the next morning (like at 4am), so that is what we did. I was still hooked up like crazy, and pushed in a wheelchair, but the aide cheerfully took me down to see my baby. He had an NG tube down his nose where he was given formula, and the nurse caring for him was about to give him a bottle.

Let me interject here that I do not think poorly of those nurses. I LOVED most of our nurses!!

This young nurse briskly told me that after I had been there for a while she would show me how to do the bottle. . . I was aghast! In my foggy early morning state of mind, sitting there watching my tiny baby, I felt sure that something must be wrong with him and that was why they weren't letting me nurse him again. Out of fear to hear bad news I shied away from asking to nurse him, which I see now was completely foolish! This same nurse told us that most babies in the SCN stayed until their due dates. We were dumbfounded. We assumed that since he wasn't on oxygen, we'd be ok MUCH sooner than that! This experience leads me to

Lesson #1 -- Many nurses are wonderful, but get the info from the neonatologist.

We were blessed with some amazing and kind neonatologists. I immediately got a completely different vibe when Dr. Obi assessed my baby and spoke with me (a few hours later). She assured me he was fine, just small, and that she was going to order some tests to rule out possible problems. She was thrilled at his ability to nurse (a refrain I never tired of hearing, but heard quite a bit over the next week) and was incredibly pro-breastfeeding. She encouraged me to do kangaroo care and come to the SCN when he was going to have his feedings through the NG tube so that he could "nurse" at the same time and get the sucking/getting full belly sensation. She even wrote that into his orders (which I overheard) so I could refer to it when other nurses were present. Many of our nurses were pro-breastfeeding/kangaroo care, but every few shifts someone would cycle in that gave this mom the feeling that I was in the way. They may try to talk me into skipping a feeding (true, it was a hassle for them to have me stumble in every few hours and need screens set up around me so I could nurse) or question why I was trying to take him to the breast since he was early (apparently preemie boys have a bad reputation of being poor nursers). Since I had connected with my neonatologist, I was able to gently but firmly establish my plans for teaching my baby to be exclusively breast fed.

I could go on and on about Dr. Obi and the other neonatologists I encountered. They were simply wonderful, and I see God's hand in giving them to me! I also have a friend who works in SCN (though she was off the week Chip was born) who gave me the 411 on the other people who worked there! It was great to have that insight! However, I know that might not be a possibility for other people, so I want to share another lesson I learned:

Lesson #2 -- embrace the lactation consultants, because they are in your corner!

When so many people are telling you what to do, it's natural to sort of avoid more input, but do not skip over this one! I probably met every LC that worked at my hospital because when I was asked if I wanted to lactation to come by I always said yes, if they were available. Everyone has different personalities and it's likely you won't just click with everyone, but those ladies were extremely helpful to me. They made my seats comfortable, got me drinks and pillows, and most importantly, they were my cheerleaders. I knew we shared a goal in getting to exclusive breastfeeding, so I could depend on their help! Here are some tips I got from them:

pump, even when you don't feel like it, especially right after holding your preemie. It's a hassle but it will help your milk come in. (I HATED pumping, I wanted my baby instead! But DO IT!)
call them to help you and don't be afraid you are interrupting.
proper holding of baby and breast to make latching work (esp. helpful if you are a 1st time nursing mom)
let people take care of you so you can rest.
ways to wake up your sleepy preemie: wet wipes on bare skin (ohhhhhh!!), pumping little arms, rubbing under chin when he pauses eating, or just holding skin to skin for a while.

Since I had already successfully breastfed my first baby, I felt just a bit more confident about asserting myself when it was time for a feeding, but in such an emotional time, you need someone in your corner, and the lactation consultants are great for that!

Lesson 3 -- be winsome, but make your baby your priority, not having everyone like you.
I wanted all of Chip's nurses to like me so they didn't groan to see me coming every hour or two. I tried to be conversational and complimentary to them -- those were some hard working ladies and many of them appreciated conversation with a mom in the middle of the night (esp. since there was often only one nurse working in the SCN during our time there). However, I learned the hard way that that was not my greatest priority. One day I left the SCN after chatting with the nurse about her hair color, and feeling like she really liked me. Later when I returned, a new nurse was working (Teresa) and told me that Chip's feeding schedule changed because that nurse gave him a supplement of formula through his NG tube about an hour after I'd left. I was totally dismayed, and expressed to Teresa that I wished she would have called me to come back and feed him again if she thought he was hungry! I had started storing up a bit of breastmilk that I wanted him to have, but for whatever reason, she didn't use it! I guess I'd hoped that since she liked me then she would automatically be super pro-breastfeeding mom, but I didn't exactly spell out my wishes to her either, so it was just as much my fault. Teresa and I were much better at communicating, and she was fantastic about calling me as soon as Chip started to act hungry, even if it were a bit early for his scheduled feeding. This was as close to "on-demand feeding" I could get in this situation, and I was very thankful for it! After that night when a sweet sister from my church cared for Chip, and called me when he acted hungry not an hour after I'd left, we turned a corner. He gained a few ounces every day, and best of all they removed his NG tube!

Lesson #4 -- Trust the Lord for He IS good.
Many people will tell you that life with a preemie is a roller coaster. You get all excited as they do very well, but then devastated with a set back. Certainly postpartum emotions and hormones play into this roller coaster experience as well! You absolutely must continually reaffirm in your mind that God is good and he is caring both for you and for your tiny one. He gives life and breath and all things. Steep your mind in Scripture, maybe even just one passage that you can read over and over and embrace. Or listen to good songs that will comfort your heart. For me, the song "Oh the Deep Deep Love of Jesus" by Sovereign Grace was an immense encouragement. I played it over and over on my MP3 player, and then when the batteries died on it (probably because I'd fall asleep listening to it), I just hit replay over and over on the YouTube video. The last few days of our hospital stay Chip had a less than helpful nurse that enjoyed giving me news in a way that made it seem like more of a dire situation than it was. Right after I was allowed to have Chip come to my room, he "desatted" in the early morning hours and I had to keep him hooked up to a monitor when he was with me even. This meant I couldn't sleep with him in the room because it made noises on a consistent basis and frequently sounded false alarms (so scary!). It was such a blow to have this happen when things were going so well, and you can imagine I cried many tears to the Lord at that time! But my faith was rock solid in the Lord's goodness to us -- sometimes you must fight for that faith!

I'm sure there are many other people out there who have experienced far worse situations and have stories to tell, but this is mine. I hope someone is encouraged by it, and I'd love to pray for you or help you with any insight I may have!

Stationery card

2011-05-26T13:52:00.001-04:00

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Big Sister meets Baby Brother

2011-05-15T10:50:00.001-04:00

A nurse let Josh bring Susie into the special care nursery for a few seconds to see her brother.

Holding Baby Chip for the first time. The kisses were plentiful.

Welcome to this world, Baby Chip!

2011-05-14T18:20:00.000-04:00

Our baby boy was born into this world unexpectedly on May 9th, 2011. This is the story of how he came to us.

For the last several weeks, my doctor had been concerned that my baby was not growing like he should be. I was measuring smaller and smaller at each appointment, and was not gaining much weight. We had multiple ultrasounds to determine his size, the amount of fluid, and general health of the baby. The conclusion kept being that he was small but healthy, so nothing to be alarmed about at that point. I went in every few days (and last week, every 2 days) to either have a non stress test done or have him looked at via ultrasound. I also did kick counts at night. My doctor was GREAT -- she was concerned but not freaking out, and just really stayed on top of the situation. She called me on her cell phone after updates, she was super attentive and involved. I am so thankful for her -- the Lord, in His sovereignty gave us this wonderful woman who cared for me and my baby.

I will say during that time when I was going to so many appointments and having to do the kick counts, the Lord was very gracious to keep us from worrying. For the most part, I did not struggle with fear, but of course that did come from time to time. Over the weekend, I could tell his kicks were not as active. He moved, but it was more like flutters, and took a bit longer to count to ten. Continually I prayed and trusted the Lord with our child, who He created -- he is the giver of life, and all things belong to him.

Monday morning we went to another ultrasound at the hospital. The doctor said "so you're getting really close -- what is your delivery date?" I told him May 31st, and he said "no, this report says delivery at 36 or 37 weeks." Josh and I were very surprised. At my last ultrasound, the doctor had not told me that was his recommendation, but apparently put it in the report. Immediately our minds were whirling. The ultrasound showed what I had suspected by the kick counts -- that he was sort of resting, and focusing blood flow to the brain. His BPP was good, and he appeared totally healthy, but the specialist doctor sent me to see my OB and have an non stress test done. At her office, she saw the same thing playing out on the non stress test -- a consistent heart rate, but a flat line, no big accelerations. She said we could deliver that night or the next morning, and if it were in the morning, I should stay at the hospital overnight for monitoring. Well, with that being my choice, I chose that night of course!

She let us go home to pack our stuff (after we were able to wake the baby up a bit and get him to act up a bit more), and make our arrangements. I had to be checked into labor and delivery by six for an eight o clock c-section.

I tried to enjoy the time with Susie that afternoon, and not be anxious about my baby's condition. Truly, the Lord was near, and I had peace. I did feel relived once we were at the hospital and the monitor on the baby showed a normal heart rate. My blood pressure started to rise shortly before the surgery, and I'll never forget the feeling of tension -- sort of a feeling that I couldn't make small talk. I asked the Lord to give me grace and help me to relax, and again, that prayer was answered. I felt really calm during the operation -- much better than during Susie's c-section when my body sort of went into shock.

Shortly after our little guy was pulled out -- we heard it! A cry! I couldn't see anything, of course, but Josh was narrating for me. He was teeny, but just fine. "Go take a picture of him!" I said so I could see him, but I didn't need to worry about that. They let Josh bring him up by my to see him nice and close. I had been prepared for our baby being whisked off by doctors and nurses as soon as he was born, but here he was, snuggling by us. He weighed a tiny 4 pounds 5.2 ounces! That was smaller than the last ultrasound had even indicated, but he looked just like Susie did -- fully developed with a cute face.

Our wonderful doctor

After my c-section, Dr. Nusz came over and gave me a hug. I was crying and hugged her so hard, and thanked her. She showed me the placenta and umbilical cord after that, because they confirmed her suspicions that there was a problem there. The placenta was small -- about 2/3 the size of a normal one, and the cord was not normal either. Dr. Nusz told me that when she tugged on the cord, it detached from the placenta pretty easily. All the nurses and doctors were gathering around to see, and kept telling me I was lucky I hadn't gone into labor. I was overwhelmed by God's providence. None of this was our plan, but it was His, and He was so good to us! Since then, I've learned that the placenta was analyzed and indeed, it was beginning to wear down, and that is why my baby had slowed down growing. Like the Psalmist says in Psalm 139 "my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth".

My biggest hope was that I would be able to hold this baby during recovery since I had to wait so long to hold Susie after she was born. I wanted to try to nurse him if I could, but kind of expected he'd be gone by then. But I was wrong! Once they wheeled me into recovery, the special care nurse brought my baby Chip into me to hold skin to skin (this hospital does kangaroo care) and try to get him to eat. I'm not sure how long he stayed with me, but probably about an hour. I was able to rest after that, satisfied that I had seen my baby first!

This week has been long and trying at times, but mostly just sweet. The Lord gave me the song "O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus" -- I like the Sovereign Grace version from the album "Come Weary Saints". The words are so beautiful and comforting when passing through murky waters. "Oh the deep deep love, all I need and trust, is the deep deep love of Jesus". I've listened to this song over and over these past days. I trust his deep love for me, and I can trust his care for us.

We named him Charles Altman. Charles is Josh's great-grandfather's name, and Altman is his mother's maiden name. We chose Charles because we wanted to call him Chip -- after Chip Stam, a man we love and admire, and we pray our son would grow to be like him. As Chip Stam led many to worship Christ, we hope our baby Chip will proclaim Christ and lead others to worship and adore him. Even through his birth and young life we hope people will see the sovereignty and goodness of God and marvel "such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it."

Charles "Chip" Altman Neisler born May 9th, 2011, 4lbs 5oz, 17 inches long. Rejoicing over God's goodness to us in this precious gift!

Thinking more about Chip Stam

2011-05-03T13:57:00.000-04:00

My mind is full of memories these days. When someone passes away, I love nothing more than to reminisce about them. I think many people in my church felt this way -- the night Chip died, it seemed that Facebook was flooded with Cliftonites and former members posting thoughts, videos, and memories of this dear man. We had a little online memory fest, and so many quotes that were posted I could hear coming right from Chip's mouth, in his tone and style.

I don't have any pictures of my own to add to the mix, but I did want to pull out a few memories, things that I have tucked away in my mind as special and significant. Here are some ramblings in no particular order:

1. One Sunday night Chip led us in the song based on the poem by William Cowper "God Moves in a Mysterious Way". He said something along the lines of "you can't sing along this time unless you have suffered and seen the Lord to be faithful" (I think he was semi-joking). At that point, I felt like I had not actually ever suffered in my life, and realized that the words we were singing weren't as significant to me as they were to him. As time moved on, however, this song became one of the most significant songs I knew. Shortly after my mom died, I read a biography of John Newton that told in depth about the poem Cowper penned and the truth of God's sovereignty over human suffering resounded in my heart as never before. Over the course of the next several months, when I was gripped with fear these words would come to mind when I needed them most, for instance when Susie's heart rate dropped while I was in labor. I am so thankful for Chip teaching me not only this incredibly precious song, but how to embrace the truth in its words while in the midst of trial.

2. My first service back to Clifton after my mom died, Chip led the congregation in "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and told a story about its author, Thomas Chisholm. Chip's grandfather knew Chisholm back when they were both Gideons, and told about how this man had become nearly destitute as he cared for his ailing wife. How sweet the words to that chorus were -- "all I have needed Thy hand hath provided". My sisters and I had sung this song to my mom while she was in the intensive care unit just a few weeks before, and singing it with my church family that night, I felt as though the words were bursting from my soul. Indeed, the Lord had provided the faith and grace I needed to walk through that dark valley.

3. Being in choir. REALLY wish I could have a memory session with so many friends who have moved away about the zany shenanagins that went on under Chip's leadership. . . often due to his leading. He never ceased to crack me up with his careful use of words when we were singing TERRIBLY (Chip was so talented, and really had to deal with quite a ragtag choir at times!). If someone slipped in without their binder of music, and just tried to look off someone else, Chip would berate them with the comment "I hate sharing!" Hahahaha!!! We all loved it when Chip would get off track and start telling stories or reading limmericks or dancing with his wife. It was flattering to be the one he teased or praised or welcomed back after a time away from rehearsals. I loved it when he would call me to ask me to read Scripture or light the Advent candle in an upcoming service -- I have one such voicemail saved on my phone from recent months in which Chip cheerfully told me to call him at home, since he was home from the hospital, but felt like he'd been run over by a train. Wow. LOVE that guy. The other night I told Josh I wished so bad to have back one of those Wednesday nights of rehearsal just to experience it again.

4. When my grandmother died, I e-mailed Chip to tell him we'd have to miss the Christmas communion service because we were driving to her funeral. His e-mail reply was precious, and the fitting words have remained with me all this time "May Christ be your portion".

5. Chip's cap -- somehow Chip lost his scholar cap that he wore for every graduation and convocation service on campus. And for several years, I was in the process of getting him a new one. SOMEHOW every time one came in, it would not fit. Too big, too small, yada yada. He would borrow his daughter Clara's high school mortarboard to use in the meantime, or we'd lend him one of the extra rental caps with pink tassels. Sometimes he'd try to remove the little year charm attached to the tassel, sometimes he'd just leave it there. Oh my. How did we NEVER take care of that cap situation? Not that he seemed to mind too much! It was all a big joke, always one more hurdle to jump over in our path to finding a cap that fit!

6. Fast e-mailer -- in recent years and months when Chip was going to the clinic or in the hospital frequently, you could count on his e-mail replies coming in about 90 seconds. I must say, I really appreciate that sort of speed. I found an old e-mail in which he must have responded to me in record time because I said to him "Wow, that was the world's fastest reply." I can only imagine the scores of people who have received answers from Chip via e-mail in this fashion.

7. Singing and playing -- love this video of Chip and Doris singing love songs together last year at our church's Valentine talent show. Not only is it cute and funny, it shows a bit of his musical talent.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me a little. If you have a good Chip memory to share, please post it here! I'd love to hear it!

Praying for the Stams

2011-04-30T14:19:00.000-04:00

This is Chip Stam -- someone very dear to our family. Over 4 years ago, He roped us into singing in the choir at Clifton before we were even members, and became one of our very favorite people at our new church -- or even in the world!

Chip has had cancer since the summer of 2007. I will never forget that week of VBS when his Doris suddenly had to step away from teaching her class (Josh and I took it over) because of Chip's diagnosis and hospitalization. I have never witnessed someone suffering first hand like this, for so long, with such true strength from Christ. Who could forget Chip's antics? He wore a back brace for a time, and would keep time in choir practice with the velcro straps -- I can see him now, "rip-ripping" it and stomping his brown Crocs in beat to the music. I remember Chip coming into the bookstore while I was working to inquire about a piece of music or something and while standing and talking to me, handing me handfuls of his hair to throw away for him that he was losing to chemo. And I'm sure we cracked up about it!

Every person who has known Chip would say he is one in a million. So upbeat, so joyful, so gifted. My life has TRULY changed from knowing him, and being in the services where he led the music. We love Chip, and our hearts break to think of him being taken from us. I pray for him and his family every night when I put Susie to bed -- that the Lord would give Susie a good night's sleep, and that he would also give Chip and Doris and Clara a good night's sleep; to be able to lie down and trust God and rest. I do not know how many more days Chip has before he will enter the TRUE rest, and be taken home to his eternal reward, but for his family I continue to pray.

I could never summarize all that Chip has meant to us, but I needed to write about him, because he is so present on my heart. I pray that the Lord will be a gentle Shepherd and carry him and his family forever.

Good Friday to Easter Sunday

2011-04-26T20:42:00.001-04:00

All dressed for church on Easter Sunday

I had such a great time making this past week a celebration with Susie, and have collected lots of ideas for next year! Here's what we did, and what I'm planning to do next year:

Good Friday -- we ended up spending this day away from home for the most part because of what we thought was an emergency with the baby I'm carrying (turns out he's just fine), so we didn't get to the Easter mountain until dinnertime, but Susie and I talked about Jesus dying on the cross and then put him inside the mountain and put the rock over the opening. I taught her the song "Easter Friday" from Emu Music that she just loved. We must have sung it 50 times. I sang the first two lines with a sad face, and covered my eyes, rubbing them when I sang the word "cried", and then spread out my hands slowly on the line "Sunday morning what a surPRISE", which always made her get really excited! She requested we sing this song all weekend, calling it "Jesus sad" or "Easter". We also went swimming Friday night -- I tried to have some fun and special outings during this time to really make it special.

Saturday -- our church participates in the Easter parade that takes place on Frankfort Avenue, where Clifton Baptist is located. Susie and I showed up to walk in the parade, but bad weather (and potential thunderstorms and hail) forced us to pull our float to keep the kids safe. Back at the church parking lot, we passed out candy to parade watchers and watched the parade ourselves. Other than re-reading our Easter books and checking to see if Jesus was still in the tomb on Saturday, we didn't do anything really original. I wanted to make Resurrection cookies, but we attended a birthday party, and by the time Susie got a bath, the day was done. I'm sure she'll appreciate doing the cookies more next year!

Sunday -- I hung a banner in the dining area that said "Jesus is Alive" and put Jesus outside the mountain with the stone rolled away before Susie got up. I also set out a basket with a couple pieces of candy and two Christian Focus board books. I let her eat some M&Ms pre-breakfast while we read them . . . may not have been wise. :) We ended up with a little bit of spare time that morning (probably because I didn't fix a big meal), so Susie and I turned on her Gettys CD and had fun dancing in the living room. I'm really glad that happened, because it certainly communicated to her "celebration". After church, we went out to eat with some friends, and Susie had a really late nap. When she woke up, we had a small egg hunt for her in the living room (downpour outside all day!). She ate lots more candies that way, but amazingly still went to bed happily last night!

For next year, I want to do a little more decorating for Easter -- maybe with a special tablecloth, table settings or something. I feel like decorating communicates celebration to kids -- and we decorate a ton for Christmas! Along with this, I would like to do an Easter tree (with a white branch) that we can decorate all week (or during Lent, maybe) by finding eggs with the decor hidden inside. I have some things that I collected this year that may work for that next year. This would be an adaptation to doing Resurrection eggs. I'm also hoping to do the Resurrection cookies (that you bake overnight Saturday and they are hollow inside when you bite them) next year. The last thing that I feel like I may have dropped the ball on is making an Easter dinner. We just had such a busy week and weekend, and ended up eating out (which was great!), but I want to be more intentional next year so we could invite people over and maybe start a tradition with our meal even!

Here are some great ideas from GirlTalk blog for next year as well!

More Holy Week activities

2011-04-20T22:29:00.001-04:00

**Updated**

Tuesday -- this is in no way original, but we colored eggs. I debated back and forth about this activity, but am really glad I chose to do it. Coloring eggs usually sort of falls in line with celebrating the "American" version of Easter, and not actually anything very holy, but I decided it's time we redeem this this activity! And since we love to eat boiled eggs (Susie starting asking for a taste from the time I pulled them out of the fridge), I thought it would be a yummy healthy thing for us to eat all week.

In future years, I plan to talk about the colors having meaning and so forth, but for Susie being so small, I left it at asking her who made the eggies (she answered correctly -- God did), and talking about how the yellow was like the sun all big and bright (which is from her Baby-Hug-a-Bible) and just keeping her from sucking on the colored eggs and spilling it all over the kitchen. I also intended on getting some stickers to decorate the eggs, and I may still do this later this week. One big craft project in an evening is plenty for a toddler who is not yet two!

Wednesday -- tonight I was going to make our Easter mountain and take Susie swimming, but all our plans got derailed. Josh made plans with a friend, I ended up babysitting, and the pool was closed. SO, we did not have any big projects or fun outings, but I did turn on an Easter song for Susie and her friend Charis to dance to: "Christ Has Risen" by the Gettys (from their CD "Songs Jesus Said"). I had planned to teach them "Easter Friday" from Emu music, which I had great expressions and motions for, but when I opened the CD case, the CD was gone! Talk about things not going according to plan. :) The girls enjoyed the Getty's song, though, and we danced to it over and over. For dinner I cut out cross shapes into our garlic bread, and let Charis and Susie snack on the cut outs while they waited for supper. Before bed, I read Susie this book, which is a good simple story of the passion week (from the triumphal entry all the way to Christ meeting his disciples in the upper room after his resurrection).

Thursday -- I made an "Easter Mountain" out of a simple recipe for homemade playdough this morning and Susie and I decorated it this afternoon. The idea for this comes from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in Our Traditions. You can use the setting all week to act out what Jesus does during the Passion week, but I thought it was most important to have it done by Thursday. We left Jesus out in the garden to pray (I made the garden out of free Easter grass from CVS and rocks and flowers we found outside). On Friday, we will put Jesus on the cross, and then in the tomb in the mountain. On Saturday, we check and see that he is still there and then on Sunday, we put him on top of the mountain, victorious over death!

Adding grass around the mountain (it bakes for 4 hours first)

Coloring the picture of Jesus I copied from her book

Our Easter mountain centerpiece

I am really simplifying the explanation and description of these events for Susie, but am encouraged to see as a whole her vocabulary pick up terms we've been talking about all week. She recognizes a cross, and of course, Jesus. She has picked up on how Jesus' friends were "sad" when he died -- though she of course does not understand that. I think if I were home with her more than I am, we'd be able to retell and refresh the lessons and books over and over, but I know there are still many years to come!

Holy Week Actvities

2011-04-18T21:13:00.000-04:00

I really wanted to do some things each day this week to make Holy Week special. I feel like Susie is old enough to enjoy some special activities and begin to understand parts of Jesus death and resurrection (and I mean BARELY understand SMALL parts). So far, this is what we have done:

Sunday -- I pulled out Susie's toy lambs. She got one last year for Easter and and one this year (a little early). I put them in a springy bucket with her 2 Easter books from last year (board books). I figured they could be special toys and books we pull out only during this time of year to enjoy. As the years go on, we will add to the collection.

Monday -- pumpkin pancakes for breakfast (I just wanted to make them, even though I realize pumpkin is not very springy!). I had picked up a set of little Easter cookie cutters at Jo-Ann's a while back with a $5 off coupon (making them like 80 cents!) and used the cross one to cut out the centers of the pancakes. Susie played with the rest of the springy cookie cutters while I cooked, but I was thinking in future years, she can help me do the cut outs.

At supper, I gave her cheese cut into cross shapes (again with the cookie cutter), a grape tomato for the rock by the tomb, and baby carrots cut into slices for the thorns. I showed her the plate and told her about the shapes and what they were for (in VERY elementary terms), and said "This cross is like 'On the cross He took my sin'" which of course made her very excited to sing the Gospel song, so we did about 50 times.

Diving into the food -- I could not grab the camera fast enough

As we finished eating, I read to her the page about Jesus' death and resurrection from her book God is Great by Carolyn Larson (which I love), and showed her how in the picture there was a cross, and stone, like on her plate. She loved how Jesus was standing -- she said "Jesus HI!" We shouted "Jesus is alive, YAAAAAAAY" a whole bunch of times. She was very excited!

I love this book -- what a great toddler storybook!

The very cute excited applause about Jesus being alive!

Playing in the Rain

2011-04-10T08:29:00.001-04:00

Squishing mud under the boots

Susie is so muddy because she took a few spills!

I let Susie and her friend go out to play in the rain yesterday, since they both had rain boots. Turns out the boots didn't make much difference for Sus, since she fell in the deep puddles several times, causing the muddy water to flow right down into her new "meow" boots. Haha!! She's my kind of kid. STOMP! SPLASH! Dig, dig, dig. There was a HUGE dead bee on our patio yesterday morning, about which Susie kept commenting "bee fall down!!" It was pretty awesome to make the bee float in the water and pour more water over him.

Someone commented on this picture that it reminded them of what they did as a kid. That warms my heart so much, because I too, have these messy outdoor memories, and I'm so thankful that Susie isn't missing out on that, living in a big city. Thank you, Lord, for giving us a bit of outdoor space at our humble apartment!

First Popsicle

2011-04-07T20:47:00.001-04:00

Tonight was a lovely spring evening, and after our walk, Susie and I enjoyed some Edy's strawberry bars outside. It was Susie's first Popsicle. . . mmmmm!

Yesterday Josh took her to the library, and I suggested he get her some more Curious George books -- whatever they had (our library tends to have them all checked out). He got Curious George Rides a Bike and said "but it's WAY too long for her." I had the impression that he'd tried reading it at the library or something, and she didn't want to sit for it. Nope! She sat and listened to the almost 50 page book the FIRST time I read it to her yesterday afternoon! And we've read it about ten times since! This is one I'm thinking we're going to need to find in hardback to keep. So thankful my girlie likes to read!

Linking up to Simply Modern Mom.

My Beach Girlie

2011-03-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

Ahhh. . .

Just returned from 4 great days at the beach. So thankful for that time of relaxation! Here is one of my favorite pictures of Susie playing in the sand.

A friend of mine sent me this link, saying the pictures of Susie playing in the sand reminded her of this Mary Cassatt painting. I just love it!

When children are sick

2011-03-11T14:18:00.000-05:00

Everywhere I turn I am hearing about friends whose kiddos have come down with this, that and the other. One family at my church had a child with chicken pox. Another had scarlet fever! Additionally, I know of multiple families whose children have had the flu or a virus more than once, or strep or ear infections, etc.

Every mom (and probably dad) knows how pitiful it is when their children are sick, especially when they are up at night, and just appear to be plain miserable. Our hearts break for them, wishing we could take away the sickies with a magic wand.

I realized today that I am so thankful that when Susie is sick (as she was through the night last night), I care for her without any sort of TRUE FEAR that she won't recover. I may let myself worry a little, and certainly feel distressed in the middle of things, but I do expect her to get better, even if it takes time. I remember reading once about a mother who had adopted several children with AIDS and other horrible diseases. She spoke about the horror of holding your child while she was ill, and not knowing if it would truly be all right. She called on western mothers with generally healthy children to pray for the faith of the parents of these severely sick children, that they would trust in God's sovereignty and give them the grace they needed to walk down that terrible road.

Let our children's sicknesses (and our own) be a reminder to pray for those who suffer continually, sometimes without hope of recovery.

Dancing with Susie

2011-03-05T22:44:00.000-05:00

I chose this picture as a glimpse into motherhood this week because I loved so much this sweet time I had with Susie. We were dancing to the Blue Grass "moo-kiss" (as she calls it) at a Maple Sugar Festival this weekend. One reason I loved it was that I actually had the energy to hold her and dance around and twirl and sing along to the songs, even though I've been starting to get rather tired with this pregnancy. We hit the wet, muddy dance floor 3 separate times during our visit to the festival, and she loved it as much as I did -- if not more! Love it that we still have Mommy and Susie times that are just for the two of us.

Love my little lumberjack girlie in her ziplock-baggie-under-Robeez shoes.

Running in from the rain

2011-02-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight while I was in class it began to rain really hard, and there was just no way to avoid tramping through it quite a bit. Susie and I had bags of stuff to carry from our afternoon on campus, and though my friend who gave us a ride kindly pulled up to pick us up, we still got drenched. I love how Susie silently bore getting pelted by the shower and then had this deer in the headlights look on her face when we got home!

She was precious as I peeled off her wet layers and stuffed her in fluffy, dry jammies for bed. I wonder if her hair will be all the way dry in the morning?
:)

Boy Stuff I've Made

2011-02-21T20:43:00.000-05:00

Two super awesome blogs that I enjoy reading (MADE and Made by Rae) are featuring a WHOLE month of stuff just for boys. Many sewing projects and craft blogs are centered around girls, and I have really appreciated all the fun inspiration I've found reading these blogs as well as their archives from last year. I am a beginner in sewing, to say the least, but in honor of "For the Boy" month, I've worked on a few boy projects for my nephews and my baby-on-the-way.

Here are the pictures of what I've made. PLEASE keep in mind, I am a beginning sewer. . . which you can tell by my lovely stitchery. :)

This was my first project -- actually, I only finished it in honor of "For the Boy" month. I had already done most of the owl. This was for my nephew Graham, and it's a cheat, because I just used the iron-on stuff (I made it before I got my sewing machine).

Tie up-cycled from one of my husband's ties (he approved it first!). It's for a gift, but I will probably make more. The tutorial on how to make them is right here. Taken from the archives of last year's "For the Boy" month.

Drool bib for my baby boy, who is on the way. I would not give it away because of how poorly it is sewn, but if he's just going to spit up on it, oh well. :) I was very excited about the THOUGHT behind this bib, but it was really just one major oops after another (not sure if you can tell that there is gingham UNDER the white elephant -- that'd be my first mistake. Ironed the wrong side down. . . and it went downhill from there).

My SIL Kari found out she is expecting her 3rd boy. Needless to say, she's well equipped in boy clothes and gear, but to celebrate his special status, I made him a little number bib.

Finally a picture of Susie playing with her older cousin Max this weekend. He's not quite 2 years older than her, and she totally thinks he's awesome. I took them outside for a bit of fresh (and COLD) air and sunshine to run around. I had them running races down to the shed and back, which of course was just an excuse to make them run fast. Sus was nonplussed by her losses and kept running after him anyway. :) I love how Max has that big stick in his hand here. :) Boys.

I feel like Susie is the kind of little girl who could definitely enjoy having a little brother to play with!

Al Mohler on Bookstores

2011-02-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

I really hope Dr. Mohler is right. I would miss bookstores so very much. . .

Read his article here. I work for the "excellent store on our campus" that he mentions -- thanks, sir. :)

This quote stuck out to me as especially true: “If you remove books from our towns and villages and malls, there will be less opportunity for the serendipitous discovery of books. And that will make it tougher to sell books.”

In the past, I worked for a store that recently went out of business, which was a tragedy for the community it had served for years. The community probably does not realize what a loss it has sustained. . . until they notice that their kids will now only have the option to peruse books at WalMart. . . in between grocery and school clothes shopping. I imagine that perusal will not be a lengthy one.

Do you agree Dr. Mohler? Do you love to handle books before you buy them? Do you shop for books in a real brick and mortar store? Support the future of your community and the future of BOOKS by shopping for them locally!

Scenes from Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T20:49:00.002-05:00

We celebrated V-day on Saturday with heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, cards, presents for Susie, and a VERY fun date night for Josh and I -- eating at Havana Rhumba (YUMMY Cuban restaurant), a little Target (fun) shopping and Pie Kitchen for dessert. Thankful for our friends from our small group at church who babysat (for free!) so we could go out!

So today was not a huge celebration day (we both worked), but there was still some fun involved. Here are some pics to outline our Valentine's Day:

1. Fetal echo on our little guy who is growing and making me grow! I'm 25 weeks, and he's got a nice normal heart as far as we can tell. I watched his heart on the ultrasound monitor for almost an hour (the total U/S was longer than an hour), but of course have no pictures of that process. Here's me right before we left.

Please click on this picture -- I look less chubby when the photo is enlarged.

2. Came home from work to find these framed family pictures on the wall! What a great Valentine's surprise! I'd bought the frames and put in pictures a while back, but I'm bad at arranging, and Josh is sort of a perfectionist, so I knew I'd just have to wait for him to have at it. The Valentine decor was made by me and Sus last week -- she colored the hearts hanging from the light fixture over our table. :)

3. Valentine cards and presents in the mail! I've been hanging Susie's cards over her bed -- I started this tradition last year, and now I think it's going to be our thing.

4. It was WARM enough to play outside, so as soon as dinner was over, Sus and I headed out. Our Chinese neighbor met us on the steps and said "Oh, Susie, you have wonnerful hair!" I think it was the strawberry clips that won him over. :) Our apartment complex has a big pebble pit where it once housed a swimming pool and Susie loves to play in it. It's a somewhat cleaner version of a sandbox.

5. Washed the cups in the sink when we came back in. Susie was soaked and so was the bathroom floor, but WOW was that entertaining. She "washed" them for 30-45 minutes while I cleaned the tub. Now that she's big enough to kneel on a chair, this will be a frequent activity.

6. Snuggles, kisses and giggles from my little Bizzy Boo -- she's a pretty sweet Valentine, since I didn't get to see my man much today! When looking at this picture, she noticed her belly was showing (which she calls "boody") -- haha!

This is her "cheese" smile

And, hey this holiday isn't quite over yet! Josh just texted to say he's bringing home milkshakes!

Spring Fever

2011-02-11T14:22:00.000-05:00

We could not be more excited that it is supposed to warm up over the weekend! While it was so cold last week, I busted out some of the precious spring dresses I have saved for Susie and had her try them on to see if they will fit when spring finally arrives. I loved lots of the pics I snapped, but especially this one, with her ponytails going forward over her head (she'd just got up from naptime) and the Mr. Potato Head parts laying all around her.

I hope it gets really warm soon, or I'm afraid this white dress isn't going to fit for spring!

Linking up to Simply Modern Mom.

Recent Library Picks

2011-02-08T20:32:00.000-05:00

We've gotten in the swing of a more regular trip to the Library with Susie to choose books. I don't really want to go more frequently than every 2-3 weeks because sometimes it takes half that for her to warm up to a book! So far, she has grown more and more fond of each pick from the library after the first week and a half -- even if she loved it right away. :) So I feel like I am more equipped to rate her library picks near the end of their stay in our home than I was at the beginning.

Though we don't always get out our library books each day, we do read some of them almost every day. Here are a few that we've had for a couple weeks now (and will be going back tomorrow) that she really has enjoyed:

1. Curious George and the Puppies -- gotta admit, even though this tops the chart of her faves, I personally am glad that we did eventually have to take it back. She loves George, she loved the puppies and the "OH NO!" part of the book when he let them all out. I could see how much she loved it, and though George and the puppies were quite cute, the story about him visiting the animal shelter was rather BORING. :) But not to a one-year-old!! So we read it 17 times a day. . . at least, probably. . .

2. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss -- this book is loooooong. Don't get me wrong, she loves it! She especially loves the first 8 or so pages, which she nearly has memorized. And we have certainly read all 63 rhyming pages at least a dozen times, but it really is long for this young of a kiddo. Plus, after the first half-dozen pages, each page is a new creature/situation, and pretty much unrelated. Cat in the Hat is about this long, but it's all one story, so probably easier to follow along (same characters each page, thus, not resetting your brain for something new). She calls the little girl in this book "Sally" because she looks like the little girl from Cat in the Hat. :) One fun thing I have found is that after she got pretty familiar with this book, I could read a line or two and then pause when I came to a rhyming word and she'd fill it in very well.

Me: "Some are sad, and some are glad, and some are very very. . . "
Susie: "BAD!"
Me: "Why are they sad and glad and bad? I do not know, go ask your. . . "
Susie: "DAD!"
(imagine her words sometimes being sputtered around her thumb, if it were close to bedtime)

3. Time for Bed by Mem Fox -- I found this in big board book edition at the library, and thought it might be a sweet book to read at bedtime. I've always loved these illustrations -- I used to buy new baby cards with the picture of the goose and gosling at bedtime with the stars behind them: GORGEOUS! Susie loves this book because she loves animals, and the cover has sheep, which are some of her faves. This is also a good one for learning rhyming.

Me: "It's time for bed, little mouse, little mouse, darkness is falling all over the. . . "
Susie: "HOUSE!"

4. Hush Little Ones by John Butler -- our librarian found this for me at our last visit when I mentioned how much Susie liked monkeys. There is one page of a mommy and baby monkey (which is just utterly adorable), but otherwise not about monkeys at all -- however, I'm so glad she found it for us. One of Susie's old faves is also by this illustrator, and I'm so very fond of the illustrations! John Butler draws the animals so round and fat and furry that you want to reach into the picture and pet them. :) For a while, each time we'd read this book (usually at bedtime, again), when we got to the monkey page, Susie would try to curl up on me like the baby monkey was curled up on his mommy. Super sweet.

This is what happens. . .

2011-02-04T18:10:00.001-05:00

. . . if you don't completely clear the dinner table after supper and leave your 20 month old to her own devices. I heard some thumping, which sounded like the tray coming off her high chair, but assumed she was playing with her doll. She was, and I guess she was the mommy, up in MY seat, stirring in her pan of eggs!

Linking up to Simply Modern Mom.

January Reading

2011-02-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

The year 2010 was the year of unfinished books for me. I cannot pinpoint the reason for it, but I started many good books without finishing them. So this year I wanted to be more thorough and finish something each month. January was a pretty good start -- I read three books and several chapters of another. Here's what I read:

1. Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney -- just the first few chapters. I am reading this long distance with Josh's sisters and brother's wife, and we are reading a chapter a week, and then posting "quotes and questions" to each other via Facebook. It's really been great. I loved this book the first time I read it, and I feel like it's even better this time around. If you aren't familiar with the Mahaneys -- I'd recommend checking out their GREAT blog Girl Talk. One of the best and most uplifting blogs out there!

2. The Summer Before by Ann M. Martin -- this is the prequel to the Baby-sitter's Club series that came out when I was nine. I devoured those books as a kid, and when I spotted this recently-written prequel at the library, I had to indulge myself. It tells the story of Kristy, Mary Ann, Claudia and Stacy just before they began the Baby-Sitter's Club together. While it will never top the list of all-time favorites for me, it was really fun to remember the characters like that. Back in the day, Claudia was my favorite because she was so cool, but as a grown-up I see that I was much more like Kristy.

3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen -- Josh's parents gave us all Kindles for Christmas, and since many great classic works are free, I quickly added those to my e-reader and jumped into this Austen work I've been wanting to read. I really enjoyed the hero of the story -- he was so funny at points it seemed more like a Dickensian hero. I don't think I prefer it over other Austen, but it was a terrific read just the same. I think this was an excellent way to start out my e-reading experience, because it made a thick book light and not tiresome to hold in one hand for even long periods of time (found that out once when Susie fell asleep on me, and I could only hold up one arm to hold my Kindle. I normally enjoy flipping to endnotes to gain perspective on the historical setting, but it wasn't as handy to do so with the Kindle, so it kept me right in the story more, which is rather enjoyable as well.

4. Lady Jane Grey, Nine-Day Queen of England by Faith Cook -- this was the best book I read last month. I finished the last chapter with the utmost respect for this young Tudor girl who was plotted against and mistreated her whole life long, only to die honorably without forsaking her sincere beliefs. At nine, she was sent to court (Henry the VIII was on the throne) and was educated alongside her cousin, Prince Edward by godly tutors who embraced Reformation teachings. Jane was brilliant, and at 13 and 14 she held regular correspondence with leading Reformers living throughout Europe such as Martin Bucer. She was able to dialogue about Theology and Scripture with these men. I was amazed by the both her brilliance in writing to them, and that they were willing to write to a woman, and such a young woman at that! Poor Jane was forced to marry, and then take the throne at age 15, and then after just a few days, abandoned by everyone who forced the crown upon her, including her parents, all of whom rallied for Queen Mary. While Jane lived, Mary's throne seemed threatened, so she was condemned to death by beheading. The last 2 chapters of this book were simply amazing, telling of how a good priest, Feckenham, was determined to "save" Jane, both her life and soul by converting her Catholicism. Mary offered Jane her life if she would renounce the "new religion". This young girl at 16 faced many priests in public debate, just days before her execution, knowing that if she were to recant, her life would be spared. I was in awe to read her debate (which is recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs), and how at its conclusion, Feckenham says they should have changed places, with Jane as the teacher and he as the disciple, and offered to be her spiritual support at the executioner's block. While this book began a bit slowly (many biographies do, you know), it ended just breathtakingly! What an admirable heroine is Lady Jane Grey!

February is here -- time to begin some new books!

Her baby

2011-01-28T13:18:00.001-05:00

Sus is a BIG Curious George fan. She got this big plush George for Christmas, and last week, he was her baby for a couple days. I tried to follow her around and snap a picture of her mothering him -- feeding him in her high chair, rocking him in the bassinet -- but they kept coming out blurry since she was always on the move. I caught this cute picture of her coming out of her room, holding her wrapped up "baby" tightly. I love how you can just barely see the Curious George face enough to tell who it is.

Tomorrow we are going to a local Barnes and Noble to SEE Curious George! Let's hope she likes meeting him more than she liked meeting Santa Clause. :) Regardless, I'm sure it will be a fun outing for our family and I plan on letting her pick out a Curious George book to bring home with us.

Linking up to Simply Modern Mom.

It's Ten A.M. . .

2011-01-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

. . . and time to read.

Lately Susie (who is now 19 months) has been all about Dr. Suess books. It started with Cat in the Hat, which she still loves, as well as Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Green Eggs and Ham (she calls it "Am Am" -- not sure if that's "Sam I Am" or her way of saying "ham", but either way, it makes sense), and now One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

I left for work and saw her perched on the couch thumbing through her new favorite library book. I called to my husband to make sure he snapped a couple pictures. I think he did a pretty good job!

Linking up to Simply Modern Mom's "Glimpse Into Motherhood".

Sharing the snow

2011-01-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

Simply Modern Mom had a great idea of taking pictures and posting them once a week that show a small snapshot of motherhood. I loved looking at the pictures other people showed, and thought this one was just perfect for me this week. Sus and I spent a great morning playing out in the snow. This was her second real snow-playing experience, and she ate it up (literally). Here she is sharing a taste of snow with me! You can see a little fleck of her previous bite on her lip as well as tell-tale flakes trapped in the neck of her vest.

I just LOVED the way she looked right up at me to offer some snow. Do you think I took a bite? Wouldn't you??

Reading to Babies Part 2

2011-01-07T20:02:00.000-05:00

A while back, I posted some tips on reading to babies that I hoped would encourage parents of little ones. Last night as Susie and I were reading before bedtime, I realized that as she has grown, my methods have changed somewhat, and that I had some new tips to share on reading to young toddlers.

I almost have a hard time calling an 18-month-old a toddler, but I realize that is the correct term. But one year old baby/toddlers need lots of read-aloud time with Mama, too, and we are laying groundwork for the longer books of our future with the books we read today.

1. Consistent book exposure -- It may sometimes feel like the books are just everywhere, and try your sanity a bit as you try to keep them tidy. However, having print (and pictures) accessible to your little one will greatly benefit them down the road, and increase the likelihood that they will request to be read to. Being able to look through a book at their leisure introduces the concept of independent reading. To make books accessible, consider keeping some in baskets in regular play areas, or at least in reach of their little fingers. I have a gorgeous bookshelf mounted up above our changing table that Susie cannot reach, and that's where I keep the special books that I wouldn't want to have ruined (for now). However, the vast majority of her books are all over the place. I'm thrilled that she has the freedom to "read" those books to herself. One time I cracked up to see her reading Cat in the Hat and saying "NO NO NO!!!" If you recall, "no no no" is the major theme of the book -- the cat making trouble and the fish and kids wanting him to leave -- so she was telling herself the story as she looked at the pictures.

2. Familiarity -- this is the reason that kid's birthday parties often have the theme of their favorite "characters": the kids feel like they know those characters through consistent exposure. Several months back I noticed that Susie was frequently saying the names of the characters in her books, and recognizing them everywhere. For example, every monkey was "George". It dawned on me (over time) that she liked reading the same books over and over because it was like she knew these people. So, as much as I'd like to broaden her horizons by introducing new books every day, I know it will take time for her to warm up. Here's how I introduce a new full-length picture book:

I let her flip through the book while I point out things happening in the pictures. I let her handle most of the pages, even though I keep the book moving forward (no need to read every page if she skips one). You may let your child do this several times or on several occasions if necessary before actually reading it.
I read the book (if she hasn't cast it aside already) out loud as far through as I can. I might possibly summarize parts of longer pages to keep the pace going.
The 3rd time through (assuming she wants to read it again, or perhaps if we pick it up later) I read it entirely. By this point, she has gotten a pretty good grip on what will happen and the story is far more enjoyable if I don't leave anything out.
Henceforth, I usually insist on her waiting to turn the page until I have finished reading what is on the page (more on this later), though I don't insist we finish reading the book if she loses interest (this is not usually a problem. By this point, it will surely be "again!" when we get to the end).

This worked incredibly well with a new library book we got yesterday. From about 4pm to bedtime, we read it 9 times, and she was sad when I said "all done" for bedtime. She even told her daddy what happened in the book at dinner. Here's my point: sometimes we get discouraged because a child doesn't seem to like a book initially because they are flipping through it. However, by taking baby steps to familiarize the child with the story, they will often warm up to the book. Just give it time.

3. Freedom and responsibility -- at this point, I still want my baby to have freedom to explore the books.

I don't always require her to sit on my lap (or sit at all) while I'm reading to her. Usually she does (she's a cuddler) but sometimes on our 4th time through a book, she just can't hold still any longer, and she will stand and look at the book, or even walk around a little and come back. Unless I can tell she's just done, I keep reading.
If she is inclined to do so, I let her turn the pages. Usually this is a favorite part of reading for this age level. When a child tries to turn a page too early, it might seem like they don't care about the story, which can be discouraging. However, I think that most likely it is just their eagerness to do their part and see what is coming next. Sometimes I say "just wait, mommy has to finish reading this page" and sometimes I let her turn it, look, and then I turn back and pick up where we left off. We are gently guiding these little ones to understand the order of a book, and at the same time teaching them patience and responsibility.
This is the age to begin to instruct them in responsibility for their books. I don't let Susie walk on her books (paper page books, that is), or throw them. When we read, sometimes she wants to put her feet on the pages, but since I think that could tempt her to kick and tear the pages, I tell her not to put her feet over the pictures. All of this sort of instruction is done in a very patient and gentle manner.

4. Don't give up, or refuse to read -- If your baby doesn't seem thrilled by books, don't give up. Keep reading, even little snippets when you get the chance. Anything is better than nothing. If your kiddo is constantly requesting the same book 47 times, don't refuse her (tedious though it may become)! This era will soon be past, and you'll miss those snuggle moments when they are gone!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in quite a while, and that's because I have been enjoying family time, home time, and holiday time rather than being on the computer as much. But I did want to say Happy New Year, and share some of my goals for 2011 as well as a few favorite holiday pics.

1. Re-read some really great books, in addition to reading some new ones. Some of my SILs and I are planning to read Carolyn Mahaney's Feminine Appeal together, which is really exciting. I always have stacks of books I want to start, but I'm choosing what should rise to the top.

2. Sewing. I am the new owner of a sewing machine, thanks to a very generous Christmas gift from a friend! I have several projects in mind I want to try, but first I'm planning to sort of learn with a few practical things, using fabric I salvaged when I cleaned out my closet. I also have a little bit of pretty fabric stowed away that I'm excited to get my hands on. :)

3. Home organization. I would like to really improve in this area. I think for the past year or two, I've sort of just gotten doing the basics. I'd like to streamline quite a bit, and clear out closet space, etc. I know this won't happen overnight, but planning to do a chunk at a time!

Here are a few fun pictures from our Christmas festivities:

Lots of cousin time -- playing piano with Cede

Christmas day -- so fun to explore all the new gifts

Playing in matching jammies on Christmas eve

Little helper ready to bake!

Reading with older cousin "Mack" (as Susie says)

We had several opportunities to enjoy the snow!

Cutie Christmas dress and babylegs

What we're doing for Advent

2010-12-07T20:18:00.001-05:00

Even though my little girl is really small, and doesn't yet understand the mysteries of the incarnation, I wanted to start laying a foundation now that will help to focus our minds and hearts on Christ during this season. I want to serve her by not tempting her to love things more than Jesus, because I know that battle will spring up in her heart on its own accord without help from me. I want her absolute earliest memories of Christmas to be not just the teeming pile of gifts she cannot wait to open, but the whole Advent season and the activities that take place.

Here is what we're doing this year:

Susie making Baby Jesus eat his birthday cake.

1. First Day of Advent, I pulled out her new Fisher Price Nativity set. We keep it out in the living room, usually set up under the tree. I try to play with it with her every day, making Mary kiss baby Jesus and the angel sing "Glooo-oooo-ria" and the animals make their noises. My plan is to only get this toy out during Advent, so they will remember it as the years go on, and look forward to playing with it.

2. Books -- we started last year by giving Susie a little board book for Advent called The Special Baby that very simply tells the story of Christ's birth. I got that back out a few days ago, and then yesterday gave her a new Advent book, The Animal's Christmas Eve which is an old Golden Book we found at Half-Priced books. It's perfect for her "listening" level this year. It rhymes, and has all the animals, and she asked me to read it like 5 times this morning, so I know she likes it. I saw her flipping through it and heard all the animal sounds (at our house, the animals are NAMED their sounds, for the most part. Except "horsey" which is a very new word for her). My plan for this tradition is to build our little Advent book collection each year and get them all out to read just during this time of year together. I think it could be really fun as kids get older and they are various ages. We could do one book a day or something, once we get enough. For now, she likes reading the same things over and over so this works!

3. Christmas songs -- when I was a little girl, we would sing Christmas songs by the tree before bed, so I did that with Susie last year. This year she's not always keen for me to keep her pinned down, so we don't do it every night, but I have been singing lots of Christmas songs about Jesus. If she's in the mood, she does the motions with me to "Away in a Manger" and often mouths along the words (not the real ones, she pretends to know it) with us. Of course there are all kinds of fun Christmas songs like "No Place Like Home for the Holidays" that I enjoy hearing each year, but I really want to feed our souls by making songs about Jesus what we sing and listen to as much as possible.

4. Advent Calendar -- I've misplaced my nice big Noel Piper calendar, and plan to make one for next year. Since I don't have that, we are just sticking on the little footprint stickers to this, and making that our little calendar. Counting the days until Christmas hasn't been a thrill for her yet, but it's good for me to do!

5. Coloring -- crafts are just a bit too much for Susie right now, but that girl could color all the live-long day. I'm printing off some nativity coloring sheets for her so we can talk about the pictures while she colors. I also found a $1 activity book that comes with stickers and coloring pages to pull out close to Christmas. I'd love for those people and animals in the Christmas story to become a part of her life like Curious George, Cat in the Hat and Woody (from Toy Story) -- those are all her favorite characters.

6. Family Devotions -- Josh is reading selections from Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus aloud after dinner. We don't do it every night, but they are really good. I have been reading a few in my own devotions, as well. I appreciate how focused on Christ the readings are. Several days ago I read part of a sermon by George Whitfield during which I was very convicted about my neglect of the poor. It's certainly not too late to look into getting this book to read this Christmas season!

Of course we're doing other Christmas traditions and baking and shopping things too, but these things are good for me to do too, not just for Susie. By working hard to help her learn about the baby in the manger, I am forced to keep my focus there as well.

What are you doing to make Christ the center of your holiday? I'm be stockpiling ideas for future years!

Our Little Family

2010-12-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to share that the Lord has blessed our little family, and He is causing it to grow! I am coming to the end of the first trimester of a second pregnancy, and we will find out if we are going give Susie a little brother or sister next month! Lord willing, we will welcome a new baby into our family by the beginning of June next year.

Praising the Lord for his goodness. He is the giver of life and all good gifts!

Going to the Heart Doctor

2010-12-01T23:08:00.000-05:00

Going a different route with this week's post. It's really more about me, but my mom as well.

Today I was thinking about my mom quite a bit. I went to the pediatric cardiologist, and as I sat filling out the paperwork, I looked around and thought of how many forms like those my mom had filled out for me. I was thinking how I used to go visit my cardiologist every December when I was a girl, and we would travel to Cincinnati to Children's Hospital for the appointment, no matter where we lived. Today there were flurries falling, and with the Christmas season coming, I could remember those days so well. When I got old enough to care, I would choose to wear my favorite outfit on that day. I knew Mom and I would go downtown, just the two of us, and usually we would try to meet my Aunt Sandy for lunch, if she were available. Aunt San worked at Children's Hospital as a surgical nurse, and it was so fun to meet her in her scrubs, and the three of us go eat in the cafeteria together. I knew Mom would let me get some sort of fun and yummy cafeteria dessert to eat, and it was great to sit and listen to Mom and Aunt Sandy talk. It was rare to be alone with two grown-ups in those days. :)

I can't help but wonder if Mom had a hard time with those annual visits. I know that fear and worry was something she battled her whole life. She used to post Bible verses up around the house to meditate on, to help her with her worry. She never acted nervous, that I can remember, but then again, I never had anything but glowing reports. Still, I'm sure that there was some aspect of fear or worry each time we went through the EKGs and Echos. Perhaps she wondered if my heart was still functioning normally. Perhaps she was afraid she'd hear something other than "see you next year!" at the end of the appointment. If so, she never let on.

Dr. Benzing and me when I'm about 9 or so

I loved to walk into the Pediatric Cardiologist's office, and hear the nurses and doctors comment on how grown up I was getting. Amazingly, many of them had worked there when I was very small, or even when I was first born, and so they remembered us year after year. Those kind of comments are just music to a little girl's ears! I enjoyed the cold and sticky EKGs -- they were somewhat fun to me. I loved meeting with Dr. Benzing (yes, my cardiologist had the same last name as we did -- we were distant relatives), and hear his soft-spoken assessment of my ticker. It was like I had accomplished some great feat by growing another year and still having a good heart. As a little girl, I felt somewhat proud of myself (as if I had anything to do with it!). It never entered my mind that I'd hear anything negative at those appointments, because I never had. It also never entered my mind that it might be difficult for my mother to re-enter that arena year after year.

I was not fearful, because Mom did not appear to be. And I'm really thankful for that.

Here is a post I wrote about my birth and heart surgery.

Thinking about Christmas Cards and Why I Love Shutterfly

2010-11-23T22:00:00.002-05:00

I recently read a magazine article contemplating why people send photo Christmas cards every year when we share pictures throughout the year on Facebook, blogs and through e-mail. The writer considered it a waste of money, and time. It made me really think about sending Christmas cards, and wonder WHY it is that I want to do it anyway?

I think it's because I LOVE getting people's Christmas cards! I especially love it when you send us one that has a family picture on it -- we often leave them up for months, or at least tack them on the fridge long after we take down the Christmas decor. Last year we put our cards up around the doorway to the kitchen, and Susie, who had just started on solids, would sit in her high chair and grin at all the people smiling at her from their cards!

My favorite company to order cards from is Shutterfly If you have ever ordered anything from them, you KNOW they have exceptional quality! Their site is really user friendly, too. I ordered Susie's birth announcements from them, and even splurged to get the really special beautiful cards I wanted. I have ordered invitations, Father's day cards, prints and photo books. Their quality never disappoints!

Check out some of their Holiday Cards they have this year -- they are always coming up with new and AWESOME things!! Here are a few of my favorites:

This one unfolds to show a picture timeline of your year -- so you can add pics and tell what your family did that year. LOVE IT!

Just so classy!

This would be super cute if you had the perfect picture to go. I'm thinking a baby laughing???

Of course, I'm not going to tell my VERY favorite! I'd rather keep it a surprise until my Christmas card comes in the mail!

Project 52 -- Date Night #5

2010-11-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

Saturday night Josh and I dropped Susie off at a babysitter, and went to see the new Harry Potter movie together! While driving in the car, we tried to remember the last time we'd gone to a movie together. . . yep, it was the last Harry Potter movie! Last summer, when Sus was tiny. I think it was the first time she'd gone to a babysitter.

Anyway, in an effort to make out date lowish cost (movies are SO EXPENSIVE) we went to the 5:55 show so it still counted as a matinee! Also, I packed cans of soda in my purse for us (ok, some frown, I know, but we still gave the theater plenty of money). I did buy us a big popcorn, though. Some things you just can't replace (at least for us). We packed sandwiches to eat in the car to save time and money (because the movie started so early). It was really really fun! The theater was packed, so I had to lean over to Josh a little since the guy next to me was certainly taking up more than his share of our armrest. :)

I'm guessing we might pull out another movie date night -- the new Narnia movie comes out next month!

Linking up with Simply Modern Mom's Project 52.

The Importance of Read-Aloud

2010-11-18T14:49:00.001-05:00

I had to write a topical speech for my class, and I thought I'd post it here. I'm sorry that it's in speech form, and not too easy to read, but I hope the content is at least somewhat interesting! If it helps, you might want to read it out loud in my voice. In front of a mirror. . . :)

Intro: On a snowy blowy day in January, the winds blew drifts around our big house in the Wisconsin countryside. I sat in the front living room with my brother and sister, listening to our mother read to us from a thick chapter book. The room was golden and glowing, not just from the sunshine that fell through the window, but also from the story we all soaked up together. We could sit, lay, or cuddle as Mom’s voice read on and on. And when it would stop, we’d all beg for just one more chapter! We loved having her read to us, even though we were all certainly old enough to read the book ourselves. It was more than the story that we loved, it was the togetherness, and the way her voice brought it to life. I would like to share with you some of the joys and benefits to reading aloud to your children.

I. Who? Everyone! As much as possible, gather the children together for reading

A. Babies and toddlers – a child is never too young to be read to! Begin by reading even just a few pages or short board books to your littlest ones.

B. Younger children – benefit from hearing stories they would not be old enough to read themselves. Early readers can learn to love books and reading because they are engaged in stories they would otherwise not yet be able to access.

C. Older children – don’t stop reading aloud just because a child can read for himself. You are still modeling good reading habits, and engaging your older children in the story.

1. Reading aloud to older children can keep a child-like spirit in them, teaching them a “willingness to be enchanted” (C.S. Lewis) that is lacking in our modern technologically-driven world.

2. Reading aloud to older children can give you opportunities to reach their hearts in ways directly speaking to them cannot. A story can touch us deep inside, and make us think about deeper things.

II. What? Your options are unlimited! There are more good books to read than you will ever have time to uncover. Here are some suggestions:

A. Classics

B. Books that Build Character by William Kirkpatrick has many good suggestions

C. Think outside the box – I’m thankful my mother read us Treasure Island and other “boy books” that I would never have chosen to read to myself. She also read us all of Little House on the Prairie books, which I’m sure my brother wouldn’t have chosen!

III. When?

a. Start young – keep going til they leave the nest

b. Every day if possible. If your children go to school and you don’t see them all day, try to read together before bedtime at least. If they are still at home or homeschooled, find a good restful time that everyone can relax and enjoy, like after lunch.

IV. Where?

a. In a golden living room

b. On Mommy and Daddy’s bed

c. Around the table after dinner

d. Get creative! Build a pirate ship, take a quilt outside under the apple trees, make a tent in the basement. . .

Conclusion: You will never regret the time you invest in knitting your children’s hearts together when you read aloud to them. You will be building memories for them to hold onto for life!

Good Night, Sue -- Chapter 6

2010-11-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

Susie was a little mommy. It may have been that she had little sisters (and she got another one when she was nine years old -- Sandy). Or it just may have been the way God made her, to care for the small, the weak, or just anyone who needed loving. Each night, before Susie went to bed, she put all her dolls and toys to bed as well. Even if they were just on the floor, or on a chair, she couldn't bear the thought of them going through the night feeling cold. So she would cover them all up -- and be sure to get their feet nice and covered (because it's the worst to have cold feet while you are sleeping). If she didn't have enough blankets for them all, she'd use spare pieces of fabric or clothes. Once everyone was all tucked in, Susie could rest easy.

She was also very creative. Sometimes a little girl cannot fall asleep right away at night, even if she is actually tired. Sometimes she would be the only one having trouble falling asleep, and she would play this game while she waited. She would pretend that she was a queen, and the bed was her throne, and the whole bedcovers were her royal robes. They spread out from her in a wide, lovely flow, just like a queen's long gown should fill her throne room. This worked especially well when she was sleeping at her grandmother's house, in a big big bed with old fashioned bedcovers. Those worked very nicely with a stately touch that a queen's robe needed. She would lie very still so the dress would not get messed up, and imagine her throne room full of courtiers, and entertainers until she got sleepy enough to drift off. . .

Years later, when Sue was a mommy, she was still big on tucking her children into bed. Gretchen and Anna would call "Mommy, will you come tuck us?" if they had been in bed very long without her coming upstairs. And if there were any fears related with sleeping, she had creative ideas for how to overcome those keep-you-awakers. For instance, when Gretchen was afraid of housefires, her mommy told her that their cat Peaches, who always slept on the end of their bed was their own little fire alarm, and that was all the assurance she needed. She told all her girls the idea of pretending to be a queen, and it was a fun game for them to try as well. Read here for more ways Emily was helped by her mommy when she had a hard time sleeping.

Linking up with Mommy's Piggy Tales (and for those of you who are interested, also finishing my YAY posts this weekend: getting engaged and married!)

Project 52 -- Dates 3&4

2010-11-16T14:20:00.000-05:00

So I noticed over at Simply Modern Mom, she has some rules for Project 52, that we haven't been very good at abiding by. For example, you are supposed to do something different at each date, and now we've done 3 movie night dates. Well, I'm thinking that for us, that rule just might not work too well since we've been having our Friday night dates after Josh gets off work, and a movie is just about all we have energy for! But, I've decided to put a bit more thought into this week's date, and maybe borrow Tiffany and Nathan's idea from this week.

Here's what we did:

Date #3 Movie night with cookies: Friday night Josh brought home the new Robin Hood movie after work, and I made cookies for us to munch on. I thought we would both need a snack to stay awake, but it turned out that I was so into the movie that I could NOT fall asleep. That was not Josh's problem, though I think he did better than usual, and woke back up near the end. I filled him in when we went to bed, but I think he was a little drowsy. He did later point out that "this Robin Hood movie is way more historically accurate. For one thing, Robin Hood is a human instead of a fox".

Date #4 Bookstore and intern small group: Saturday night we actually had a babysitter! We dropped Susie off at our preaching pastor's house. Our pastor's wife had offered to watch Sus for us sometime, and it kept not working out with our schedule, so we were glad when it did! According to Diane, she was a good girl the whole time, which was great (you never know with babies -- you could leave a fussy all evening and it be a nightmare for the sitter). Josh and I first went to Half-Priced books to walk around and look -- it's one of our favorites. We didn't buy much, but I found an old Golden Book to give Susie for Advent. After we left there, we had dinner at another one of our pastor's homes and had a great time in small group with their family and another intern's family. My husband Josh is interning at our church this year, and our discipleship pastor hosts groups of the interns each month. It was great to go as a couple and just relax and be together knowing Susie was in good hands! We love our church and are so thankful for the families our hearts are knit with there!

At the grocery store -- Chapter 5

2010-11-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

When Susie's mother took her girls shopping at the grocery store, sometimes she would let them have a special treat. When they first went into the store, Mother would give them each a box of animal crackers to hold while they were in the store. The little red box decorated like a circus train car would hold their fancy so Mother could do her shopping in peace. Of course, Susie and her sisters were only allowed to keep the box of crackers to eat if they were good in the store. One can only imagine how devastating it would be to have your crackers put back on the shelf when your sisters were allowed to keep theirs. Susie greatly treasured holding her own little box of animal crackers. She loved how it rattled with the promise of the menagerie of animals it held inside. She was always sure to be good and helpful to Mother so that that little box of crackers was hers to keep! And then! How fun to open the little red box and discover the assortment you had! You could trade your elephants for your sister's lions, if you wished (lions are the best, of course).

Susie must have learned loads about taking your children grocery shopping, for when she grew up and became a mother, she always took her children along with her. From a young age, they were given tasks in the store to help with, and by the time they were in late elementary school, they could divide up her list, and take 3 separate carts around the store to cut the shopping trip down by quite a bit! Sue always took the produce and dairy sections, her son Nathan took the frozen, and Gretchen and Anna went together through the grocery sections. They had seen their mother choose sizes and brands so often, that they knew just what she would want them to get! And instead of animal crackers, they liked to choose Hostess fruit pies -- chocolate for Nathan, cherry for Gretchen and lemon for Anna. And they liked those just as much as Susie liked her animal crackers.

Project 52 -- Dates 1&2 in the same weekend!

2010-11-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

I have been following Simply Modern Mom's Project 52 for weeks now, and Josh and I have been planning to start our own weekly date nights, but just hadn't started. Until this week!

Date night #1: Friday night we somehow forgot that Josh got off work at 9:00 (instead of 11), which was a pleasant surprise! Josh suggested getting a Redbox movie on his way home from work, and I was super excited. We watched Toy Story 3, which we both really enjoyed! I will say I probably enjoyed it more, since Josh fell sound asleep partway through. . . So, because this was a last minute date, we didn't put a WHOLE ton of time into planning things, but it was still fun and good to actually have our first date night! And I love a surprise, so that alone made it special for me.

Date night #2: Saturday night we had a second movie-after-Susie-went-to-bed, and this time we watched Robots -- which was hilarious!. Since we planned this date, I actually took a few minutes to declutter the living room while Josh was putting Susie to bed. I also made us homemade "Blizzards" with vanilla ice cream and leftover Halloween candy! YUM! I have to admit, once Josh polished off his blizzard, he fell asleep. It's ok. We've been married for nearly 10 years, so I'm pretty used to him not making it through a movie with me. He even falls asleep in the theater (sometimes).

Now that we have started, we have to keep up the streak! We are planning another date for this weekend! WOO HOO!

Gretchen Meets Josh -- the start of our relationship

2010-11-08T10:58:00.001-05:00

I've missed so many weeks of "My Young Adult Years" that I was linking up to on Mommy's Piggy Tales, so I decided to do 2 last posts -- one about meeting and dating my husband and another about our engagement and wedding. People want to read that stuff, right?? :)

Except for the first couple of months in college, I did not date anyone. I went ON a few dates to required functions, and I was interested in a guy or two from time to time, but generally, I was a girls' girl. I had a handful of guy friends, but being sort of a loud girl (in more ways than one -- all you had to do is see my colorful vintage wardrobe), I wasn't the greatest at making a good impression on many of the guys I knew. I did go through a period of time feeling like I would never get married, and had to fight for contentment because quite a few guys were interested in my sister, or my friends. . . so I'd feel like "when will someone come along for ME?"

Gretchen Meets Josh

Second semester of my Junior year, I was signed up for a dreaded science class. I had put off those classes so long because I was never good at science, and I was afraid of taking them. When I walked in the door, a guy I knew said "GRINCHIN, come sit by me!" He was a loud guy who liked to say my name wrong. Sure, why not, I'll sit by him, I thought. Moments before the class began, the prof came over and told him "Matty, you already took this class. You were in it last hour. You're not in it again!" So all of the sudden, I was sitting alone in a class where you needed a science partner. I saw another table with my friend Heather and this guy named Josh who dated a girl in my dorm. "I can sit with them" I realized, and joined their table. It only took a few minutes before I realized that this was Josh Neisler, a different Josh from the guy who had a girlfriend -- of course I didn't ever get them mixed up after that!

Here are two things Josh told me the day we met: "You're OLD!" he said when I said I was a senior (I was, credit-wise). But I was 20 and he was 19!! Not exactly old. Also, when my long hair got caught on the bolts of my chair and a few strands ripped out, he said "sick. . . " I sure thought he hated my long hair! Well, no worries about having to make an impression on this guy!! Nothing to lose!

I could tell right away that Josh was really smart, and that science was pretty easy for him. Before our first test, I asked if he would mind helping me study, and we sat and talked in the library for quite a long time, which was great! I liked a guy who could really talk! Amazingly, I ended up getting a better grade on my test than he did -- probably because I was so freaked about it, and he figured he could wing it and do fine.

Our First Date

A few weeks later, our mutual friend Scott found me outside the library and asked me if I would go as friends to an event with Josh if he were to ask. I told him I probably would. Less than an hour later, Josh found me in the Student Center and asked me to go to the Symphony in Milwaukee. I can remember right where I was standing, underneath the stairway across from the snackshop. I was so flattered he was asking me to something GREAT like the Symphony, something that cost MONEY and wasn't required to attend! When I told my mom about it, she asked me if I was excited, and I told her I bought a new dress for the date! HAHA! I guess so! I still have that dress -- don't wear it, but I thought it was sort of special, so I kept it. Black with little flowers on it, in a very popular late 90's style (I thought it looked 1940's -- whatever!).

The night of the symphony, the guys came to pick us up (we had to drive as a group to Milwaukee), and I could tell right away Josh was anxious. We had to go back to his dorm because he'd forgotten our tickets, so he was ticked at himself. We waited in the car for what seemed like QUITE a long time. . . as they tore apart their room looking for the tickets. Turns out, they were in Josh's suitcoat pocket the whole time. So when he came back to the car, he was furious with himself. . . which translated to me that he wasn't thrilled to be with me! We missed the opening movement, but as the music played, he relaxed a bit, and we were able to whisper a bit about the music. I love Milwaukee symphony, and it was beautiful. The man sitting in front of us told us we were very rude and we talked the whole time, but I am certain we didn't because Josh still was giving me (or himself?) the silent treatment for the most part. We took a picture afterward. . . you can see his smiley face. . . We stopped for coffee on the way home, and he just drank water. Wow. I had been totally willing to enjoy this date, but it seemed like he was killing it in it's tracks.

I'm so glad I made sure we took a picture! We have it as a record!

Later that night, I talked to my friend Stephanie about it (she was back working for the school, and I worked as an RA in her dorm). She suggested writing him a thank-you note just to let him know you had fun. That wasn't as forward as a phone call or something, but still let him know you weren't mad or something. She was so smart. That started a series of note-writing back and forth between us. AH. . . those were the days of free inter-campus mail, and it was so fun to go check your boxes between classes to see if he'd left a note! Josh called me a few times as well, and one time, not long after our first date, he told me something I will never forget. He told me that his roommates gave him a pretty hard time about asking me out.

"Gretchen BENZING? Do you really think you can HANDLE her?" they had said to him.

"Wha. . what did you say?" I was afraid to ask. I could only imagine he'd said "no" or worse, an arrogant "YES, I can handle any girl!"

"I said, what do you mean? What's to handle?" he replied. And I knew then and there that he saw me differently than other guys had seen me. What was to handle? She's not too much. Not too loud. Ohhhh. . . I think I started falling in love right then!

Other things we liked to do

Josh obviously got over the bumble on the first date, and we started hanging out a lot more, talking in the library, "studying" together, etc. We didn't eat meals together or go to church together or sit in chapel together, though, which were the typical things dating couples in college did. We generally took it pretty slow, and kept hanging out with our separate groups of friends -- until we really clicked with a mutual friend, Melissa Szydlowski (we called her "Sid"). She was the perfect person to hang out with both of us, because it took off a little pressure from trying to impress each other. We mainly hung out in the Student Center and talked together.

Josh and I would both go to the Nursing Home ministry together on Thursday nights. It was my society's ministry (we had societies with ministry focus in college in the place of sororities and fraternities), but everyone was welcome to join. I was so impressed with how well Josh interacted with elderly people. I really admired how he was good with kids, too. I had not met a whole lot of guys who was good with both ends of the spectrum. It quickly became a requirement for my future husband.

A Dating Couple

Right before spring break, I had some doubts about a possible dating relationship with Josh. We had had talks about moving forward, and he was planning to come home with me for Easter and talk to my dad about dating me. But I was interpreting his easy-going laid-back nature as not being a good leader, and it scared me that I was getting in a relationship I should avoid. I told him frankly right before we said goodbye for break that I was rethinking our relationship, and I was going to think things over while we were gone. He looked really sad, but he just said "well, ok, let's pray together about it." When I got home, I told my mom everything and showed him a letter he'd sent home with me. I can't remember what the letter said, but Mom about cried and told me "I like him." As that week went by, I had a big change of heart. Josh was smart, and didn't call me until the end of the week, and by that time I was missing him big time. I read a passage in Proverbs that said "With-hold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." which convicted me that I was with-holding my affection from Josh just to protect myself. I needed to do him good, and trust the Lord to guide my steps.

After his Easter visit, where Josh asked my dad if he could date me (Dad gave him a copy of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" in response), we considered ourselves a couple. We felt like we had gone about things in a proper way, talking through whether or not we were pursuing marriage before we started "dating". Josh's family came to visit us right after that, and it was fun to meet his parents and sister Melissa. I had been SO nervous about it, but they were all normal and nice. His parents took us to eat on State Street in Madison, and I remember we held hands in the van on the way there. WOO WOO! (You have to understand that any physical contact AT ALL was not allowed at our school, so holding hands in front of his parents was really our only option).

A Change in Relationship

From my college scrapbook

At the junior/senior banquet, Josh and I went together with Sid and Scott, and it was one of the most fun nights of my whole college experience. I'd gone dress shopping with Sid for the occasion, and we found a fun 20's style swing dress for her. I remember being so tired that night from staying up all night the night before, that I was drinking coffee at the banquet (coffee was new to me at this point). Josh suggested adding just a tiny bit of sugar to take off the edge of the bitterness, and I told him that I would always remember him the rest of my life as I drank coffee because he was the one who taught me to like it. He said "Maybe I'll be the one to pour your coffee for you." I thought that was SO sweet and romantic! You know how it is! Saying those little things that make those big promises. . .

The dynamic in our relationship changed dramatically when our friend Sid graduated. Suddenly, the three of us was down to two. We loved hanging out with Sid so much, and it took a bit of adjustment to just hang out together. We both stayed for summer school, and we started finding out how to hang out just together. It was the start to a new chapter in our relationship . . .

To be continued. . .

Classic Susie Stories -- Chapter 4

2010-11-02T20:44:00.001-04:00

Like many little children, Susie sometimes did not want to obey her mother and daddy. One time, she had a harder time obeying than usual -- and what transpired will always be known as:

The Popsicle Stick Story

Susie was eating a yummy Popsicle, and when she was finished, she did not want to throw it away in the garbage can, so she just set it on the edge of Mother's table.

"Throw your stick away," Daddy told her.

"No." Susie dared to say, and she even dared to smack the stick so it would fall onto the floor.

Daddy leaned over and picked it up and put it back on the table. "Throw it away," he repeated.

She knocked it down again and still refused.

Daddy was a firm disciplinarian. He swatted her bottom.

She cried, but refused to pick up her stick and throw it away.

Over and over, Daddy would pick it up, and she would knock it down, and she would get another swat. Finally, after a rather long battle, Susie caved. She could tell that Daddy would win, no matter how long the battle raged. She weepingly carried her stick to the trash and threw it in.

"Now look at that," Daddy said, "You hurt my hand because you wouldn't throw it away."

Susie looked at him with a totally serious face and said "Not as much as you hurt my tail!"

Sometimes Susie could be a little bit dramatic, as all little girls can be. She did not like getting hurt, not one little bit! Here is a story that illustrates what might happen if a dramatic moment got the better of her. . .

The Apple Peel Story

Mother was sitting by the kitchen table, peeling a bright red apple. She had the amazing talent of being able to peel an apple in one, long, spiraling peel. This time, she must have broke off a bit of that long peel, which fell to the floor.

Susie came into the kitchen with bare feet. As soon as she ran by the table, she stepped on the small bit of apple peel, which stuck to the bottom of her foot. Not too long later, she happened to notice the bright red spot on the sole of her foot.

Immediately she ran shrieking through the house: "I'm BLEEEDIN', I'm BLEEDIN'!!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. It never dawned on her that she could not feel any pain in her foot. She just knew what she saw. "I'm BLEEDIN'!!" she wailed to her mother, who, upon examining the foot, removed the piece of apple peel and held it up for Susie to see.

"It's just a bit of apple peel." was the calm explanation.

Maybe Susie felt a bit silly then. But she probably felt better if her Mother let her eat some of that long, spirally apple peel.

Early College Friends

2010-10-25T22:15:00.001-04:00

At an early football game. You can tell the one girl was not a student, as she is wearing a divided garment.

One of THE biggest highlights of college was the friends I made. Of course, most people probably feel that way. I absolutely LOVED the girl talk in the dorm, the borrowing clothes, the fixing each other's hair for special events. I met so many really great girls at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. I could NEVER mention all of the friends that meant so much to me! Here were a few from my Freshman and Sophomore year, accompanied by more selections from my scrapbook.

At a Christmas party in Illinois with Gould 202 girls

The girls in Gould 202 became close friends the semester after Stephanie left (she was student teaching). They were right next door, and their room was like a bunch of sisters chilling together. Donette Winterland and I found out we were friends when I told her I liked her "Jesus Freak" t-shirt (which was SO not allowed to be listened to). We then began a discussion about versions of the Bible. She read the NIV, so we clicked right away. HAHA! She invited me and her roommates to come stay at her house for a weekend in downstate Illinois, which made me feel utterly grown up. I recall the drive home when we were belting out Alanis Morissette songs at the top of our lungs. I was really feeling like an independent college girl then! I have such a vivid memory of sitting down and eating nearly an entire pound bag of peanut M&Ms in room 202 the afternoon after white glove, and gossiping about who-knows-what senseless information. I do not claim to have always used my time wisely, especially not my freshman year!

My sister Anna, Mary and me by our Christmas tree

Mary Fetters was one of Donette's roomates, and was close to me all through school. She came home with me for Thanksgiving my Freshman year, and it was so great to share my family and world outside of college with her -- she was such a sweet and funny friend, and I just could never get enough of hanging out with her. Mary worked hard at a home for the mentally handicapped, so her weekends were often filled up with working double shifts to pay for school, but we managed to fit in trips down to the Pinecone gas station where I used the Shell gas card my dad gave me to use to fill up, and buy us pizza and pop for supper -- and maybe one of those HUGE rice krispie treats, or apple fritters. It was our Sunday night before church ritual.

Another 202 girl was Heather Bailey. She had super long hair and at first I thought she was shy or something. But she was super smart and funny, and after she got to know me, we really had a good time. Heather and I had weird, rambling conversations while studying in the library. It was something like streams of consciousness -- which we were really into while studying Psych together. We had a great idea for a book of some sort which took place during World War II and contained all sorts of random things that fascinated us. She made "boy watching" quite the fun sport for us all, and was always ready to tell stories about whomever she had currently had a crush.

Andrea tatted me that lace, and I framed it with pictures of us

I met Andrea Nash my freshman year, but I spent a lot more time with her the following year. Andrea was so like, and so unlike me. We had both been homeschooled, and were from Illinois, and always had classes together. But she, unlike me, was quiet, and sweet and not considered a loudmouth or know-it-all. I loved Andrea for how we were different, and somehow I just knew I should be MORE like her. We always sat together in every class we shared, and tried to share a class every semester. We also had a tradition of getting our picture taken with our professors at the end of the semester -- they probably thought we were psycho, or maybe they were just flattered that we liked their classes. I remember one TERRIBLE day for me in school -- I was so distraught about something that I could not refrain from crying when class was about to begin. Andrea insisted that she walk me outside, and then listened to my sobs, and then suggested that I skip class and go take a nap (I was sort of out of my mind at the moment). I will ALWAYS remember her kindness to me, and her truly helpful friendship. The fun thing about Andrea is that 7 years after we graduated from college, we found ourselves back together again! Our husbands attended the same Seminary, and we are members of the same church now! Andrea is still a dear friend, and I suspect, always will be.

Isn't it amazing how the people you meet in college influence the kind of person you are becoming?

Susie's Early Childhood Days

2010-10-20T22:50:00.000-04:00

Marching off to her kindergarten class, Susie wore a button pinned to her sweater that said "I Like Ike". She must have gotten the button from her mother, since her daddy voted Democrat, and probably did not like Ike. Nonetheless, it is a pretty funny thing for a little girl to wear a campaign button to school! She attended Hartwell school in Cincinnati, which was built in 1923, and was partially destroyed by a tornado in 1969.

When Susie was a little girl, her mother sang her this song in the bathtub. This song is about your pruney fingers and toes, and how the water makes them all wrinkled:

"No matter how young a prune may be, he's always full of wrinkles!

A baby prune is like his dad, but he's not wrinkled quite so bad.

We have wrinkles on our face; a prune has wrinkles everyplace!

No matter how young a prune may be, he's always full of wrinkles!"

When she was very young, her mother used to bounce her on her knee and chant this little song:

"This is the way a lady rides, hobble-dee-hoy, hobble-dee-hoy."

faster: "This is the way the gentlemen ride, hobble-dee-hoy, hobble-dee-hoy!"

very fast: "This is the way the Indians ride, hobble-dee-hoy, hobble-dee-hoy!!"

And you almost fell off the knee by the time you got to the Indians riding.

Susie probably learned the words to all of Mother's songs so well because they were sung over and over to several children. When Susie was 5, she got a new baby sister, Donna! Now there were three girlies in Susie's family. And she was the biggest sister, which of course, is very important.

Susie, Katie, and Mother holding Donna

When Susie grew up and became Sue, she was just like the little girl in the "I Like Ike" button. She never missed an opportunity to vote, and made election night a big party for her family. The night she had her stroke, that eventually took her life, the doctors asked her several questions to see what she could remember. They asked her who the president was, and she couldn't remember his name. "I can't remember," she said, "But I know I didn't vote for him. He's too liberal." Even in that condition, she could remember exactly where she stood politically, which was pretty amusing to her family.

For several years, Sue worked at the polls for several elections -- long, sometimes dull days of handing out ballots, and then collecting and protecting the counted ballots to ensure the voting was done without mistakes. I am sure that she did not think her task was boring, because it was important. She was dedicated to her community and her country. She really was "All American Sue".

Fall pictures

2010-10-16T22:23:00.000-04:00

I've been looking forward to taking pics of Susie this fall. It's been super hot until just recently (still pretty warm in the middle of the sunny day), so the pictures have just finally been able to start. Here are a few favorites:


We actually stopped by this tree just for the photo op. The trees are not quite as brilliant this year.


At the pumpkin patch.

Right now, her 2 favorite phrases are "Oh, WOW" and "All right!". She was running around "oh wow-ing" the pumpkins the whole time at the pumpkin farm. What a funny kid.

Susie's Big Move

2010-10-14T14:19:00.001-04:00

For the first three years of her life, Susie lived on the farm with her parents, near to family and close friends, and so Susie grew up surrounded by cousins. As evidenced by the plethora of her baby pictures in an era where a family camera was not a common household item, she had plenty of attention from her family.


This picture says Baby Sue with Johnny (who was a cousin)

When Susie was three years old, her family moved north, to the bright lights and hustle and bustle of the big city: Cincinnati, Ohio. As was common in the post-WWII era where men returned from war with new skills and experiences, Susie's daddy had gotten a job working for General Electric in the city. He was quick at learning how things worked, and how to fix things. Cities were booming at this point in America, offering G.I.s better opportunities for advancement and careers than a rural life did. So when Daddy went off to work in the city, Susie settled into a new life in a new house with Mother and her new baby sister Kay.

Crosley Field in the early 1950's

Mother liked to listen to baseball games on the radio as she did housework, since this was before television sets invaded every household. Several times a season, Crosley Field would have a "Ladies Day", where female fans could be admitted for a lower ticket price. Mother would dress in a nice dress, gloves and hat, and take the bus with a friend down to the ballpark to watch the game. She always referred to the ballpark as "Crosley Fiel' ". It is funny to note that while Mother loved sports, Daddy never took an interest. In fact, even after they had a television in their home, Mother would still listen to the games on the radio in the kitchen because Daddy was not interested in watching them on T.V. Susie inherited her mother's love for baseball (and football, and other sports), as well as her zesty cheering for the home team.

Having a little sister no doubt changed Susie's world more than moving from the farm to the city. Suddenly there was a new person to share Mother and Daddy with. But also, there was a new sister to play with and have for a friend! Sue cherished her relationship with her sister Katie her whole life long. They shared a bedroom, sat up many nights talking late after dates, and one day they married guys who were good friends.

Katie and Susie with their grandparents whom they called "Papa and Mama"

Amazing that God gave Sue lots of daughters when she grew up. Some people "get girls" and she was one of those people! She was always someone to notice your stylish pair of shoes, or your cute new hairstyle. She taught her children how important being friends was, that no matter where you lived, or what new situation you walked into, you would have your siblings to be your friends.

A fun late '60's picture of Sue and her sisters -- she is in the middle in the blue skirt and wild top

Going off to College

2010-10-12T13:27:00.002-04:00


From the 1st page of my college scrapbook -- the snowmen picture is our dorm room door which won the Christmas door decorating contest

When I was a 18 years old, I was not homesick in any way, shape or form. I'm sad to say that when I left home in the backseat of my parent's minivan, my heart did not twinge for those who would miss me, because I was TOO DARN excited about my adventure. Really, nothing daunted this excitement. I was not afraid of the rules (I chose to go to Maranatha Baptist Bible College, which seemed pretty strict to me compared to how I grew up), or the dress code or the classes or making new friends. I was just excited to do those things.

My P.C. (Prayer captain -- sort of a room leader) was one of the first people I met there and was a SUPER fun and bubbly senior named Kathy. She was a cheeleader and turned down scholarships for cheering to big schools to come to MBBC. She was tiny and spunky and could do 3 back flips in a row in our small dorm room (after we rearranged our furniture to our liking). She was known as "Flipper" because she could do a series of back flips the whole length of the basketball court. I picked the bunk underneath Kathy, and waited to meet my other roomies -- there could be up to 6 girls in a room. Only 2 more ended up joining us, so we had much more room than many other rooms.

Kathy studying on her "magic carpet" bed.

Like I mentioned, I was fearless. I was so green, never having been to school before this. Kathy was the perfect girl for me to room with because she was godly and cheerful and not emotional or boy-crazy. I probably didn't realize at the time that she set a really good tone for me of what life could be like in that sort of school. Kathy studied and worked hard, but had a great attitude and treated everyone kindly. She helped me to like Math (I'd always hated it, but ended up getting a perfect grade on my final -- including all the bonus points!), and running (always thought I'd hate it, but Kathy showed me the joy of a runner's high right before you have to settle in to study).

I also had a friend, Stephanie, who lived on my hall from my home church who had been at MBBC a few years before me, and was kind enough to let me follow her around as I became acquainted with everything. Steph was also a good friend for me to have. She stood by me when things suddenly got rocky during my first semester and helped me understand when I had trouble with girls. I don't remember anything specifically, but apparently I had my feelings hurt over something, and I said to Stephanie "I don't understand why people don't like me! I'm nice to them! They think I'm being fake!" Steph sighed and said "Gretchen, you didn't go to school. Welcome to 'Girls 101'. This is your first exposure to it." HAHA! Looking back, I probably came on too strong and wanted to be liked by EVERYBODY. It took a while for me to just find my niche and study and work hard and not worry about being the most popular girl ever.

Steph and I doing our nails and some sort of yogurt hair treatment -- I did love getting to know the girls in the dorm!

One thing I appreciated about both of these older girls was their ability to be young with me. Steph lived in another room, but she'd hang out with me and Kathy from time to time, and we called Kathy's top bunk "The Magic Carpet", like from Aladdin. Kathy could jump up onto her bunk in one leap, from the floor, even though she was so short. Stephanie and I were so tickled, for some reason, to hang out and laugh together on Kathy's "Magic Carpet"! Sadly, the picture of that has been ripped out of my scrapbook! I think I took it out for something in Stephanie's wedding (just a guess).

I could write a million things about people I met my freshman year, but I'll save some of those for the next chapter.

All American Sue is Born -- Chapter One

2010-10-06T21:49:00.001-04:00

Helen and Curtis Wilkinson were fascinating people. Curtis persuaded Helen to elope when she was just 15 years old, shortly before he had to report for active duty in Europe. While he was learning to jump out of airplanes alongside the bravest men in the world, Helen was at home, singing and playing her guitar with her father and sister Mildred to earn gas ration cards. He saw the Eiffel Tower and other sights in Europe, and she helped with the tobacco crop in rural Kentucky.

When Curtis returned home to Liberty Kentucky, it was not long before the two became three. Helen was at home in their one room home on the farm when she went into labor. In that rural area, it was common for a woman to give birth at home rather than in a hospital. Helen was 19 years old when she had her first child -- a tiny baby girl. It was June 20th, 1947.

They named their precious girl Bonita Sue. Bonita is Spanish for pretty, but she was never called by that name. To them, she was always "Susie", and a sweet Susie she was indeed.

One can just imagine Helen holding her precious child on a hot, still summer night. Perhaps she thought her daughter looked like her handsome husband, Curtis. Perhaps she counted her little fingers and toes, and hummed soft little lullabies. Perhaps she planned all the adorable little outfits she would sew for her girl, and take her around to show to all her family and friends. Perhaps she looked down the road at the years ahead and the myriad of conversations she and Susie would have. She would be her forever friend . . .

Changing her first baby in a perfect little nursery

I cannot say for sure what Helen felt or thought at the sight of her child, but knowing Sue as I did, and seeing her as a mother, I imagine that she must have been mothered by someone who loved her very dearly. For you see, when Susie grew up, she wanted to be a mother so very much, and waited to become one for a very long time. When the Lord finally answered her prayers for a child, and then again, and again and again, those children were loved as the most precious gifts she could have ever received. Sue was a new mother at 29, and endured natural childbirth and inducement when she had her last baby at age 45. Babies were a part of Sue's world her whole life long -- before she had her own, she and her husband would borrow other people's babies to hang out with, and after hers all became teenagers, she adopted the whole church nursery as her extra grandchildren. Of course it is easy to love sweet and cute children, but for Sue, she loved them all, even those who were harder to love.

And she loved to hear the news of someone getting a baby. Whether it was a young mom finding out she was pregnant for the first time, or a woman who had long been unable to have children adopting a little one, Sue would share in their joy just as if it were her own. She once gave a silver spoon to a friend who had never had a child when she found out she was expecting. "Your baby deserves to be born with a silver spoon in it's mouth" she told her. That baby was taken to heaven before she ever saw this world, and I now have that precious silver spoon in my baby's room.

Sue Wilkinson was certainly not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she had the love of her young parents. . . and was rich indeed.

Prescription for Contentment

2010-10-01T09:58:00.000-04:00

A missionary who lived in Africa for 52 years made these commitments, to help herself strive to be content where she was:

"1. Never allow yourself to complain about anything -- not even the weather

2. Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else

3. Never compare your lot with another's

4. Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise

5. Never dwell on tomorrow -- remember that it is God's not ours."

~ taken from Linda Dillow's book Calm My Anxious Heart

Hmmmm. . . how can we even try to keep those kind of commitments to ourselves? Only by God's grace! Let's rely on the power of the gospel to help us fight for contentment!

Do you know. . .

2010-09-29T15:48:00.003-04:00

Do you know this little girl?

She's the kind of girl that you would love to have as a friend. And I'm sure she would have been your friend as well, for when I knew her, she never met a stranger. She was lots of fun and knew how to shuffle cards perfectly with a fluttery-snap finish. If you didn't know how, she'd be happy to teach you to play "rummy".

Here are some other things about her:

She loved to read.

She was the oldest sister in a family of 5 kids.

She called her parents "Mother" and "Daddy" her whole life.

She was in lots of plays.

She became a teacher and a mommy when she grew up. And she was really good at both jobs.

She was really quite the classic "All-American Girl"

Her parents and sisters called her "Susie", but most of her grown up friends called her "Sue".

You'd probably know who she is better by this picture:

Announcing my new blog series "All-American Sue" about the youth of my mother, Sue Benzing. Be sure to check back every Thursday for a new chapter in her life! This will be a 12-week series, taking breaks on the holidays. Come back and learn about:

Susie's southern roots

The apple-peel story

The Popsicle stick story

Her bedtime "routine"

Plus lots of great pictures and much more!!

Please pray for me as I work on this project that I will write something worth keeping to honor my mom!

Great Resource!

2010-09-27T15:43:00.000-04:00

Wow, check out this HUGE list of 100 books and blogs on parenting and related subjects from Inspired to Action! When I perused the book list, I had only read, um, FIVE of the books! For real! (though I have started a couple others) This is just what I needed to inspire me to read a new parenting book. That, and, I'm almost done with my classroom reading. May I suggest, however, that if you check out her list, you consider purchasing a book from REAL people in a REAL bookstore? If you like bookstores, I mean. Someday you can tell your grandchildren about them, since they will likely no longer exist. Ok, putting away the soapbox now.

Here's what I am choosing to read first: Grace Based Parenting. I have read a couple of posts from this blog, and have heard it recommended highly. Anyone out there read it?

Some things about Susie

2010-09-24T15:33:00.000-04:00

Before I forget them all, I want to write some things Susie is doing/saying at 15 months. . .

She is talking really well for her age. Still lots of gibberish, but also lots of mimicking words and repeating us. She calls me AND Josh "Daddy". Once upon a time when she was really little, she called me "mama", but it's solidly daddy these days. She will run between us and say "skeeeeeeeze" as she hugs our legs, then turn to "Daddy" and do the same, over and over, skeezing and skeezing. :)

She says this sentence quite a bit: "This is a _____(fill in the blank)" or "It's a _______" or "Dat a _______" Sometimes the blank is just gibberish. Often she'll say "This is a booty" (another word for birdy, belly, and I guess . . . bottom -- she uses it in all occasions). She also loves to recognize "watey" (or, water). The bathroom is always "the watey", as is the pool we walk past on campus, or any body of water on television. The first time I heard her say it was when Josh was taking a jug of water out to the car "Dat a watey!" she said, clear as day, pointing at the jug.

She uses "all done" quite a bit -- not only when she's finished at a meal, but when I turn off the water washing dishes and she hears it go off "ALllll Duuuuuuuuuun" she says. Or when she WANTs to be done with something, like getting dressed, or having her diaper changed "all duh, all duh!" she says quickly. I then have to remind her that we are NOT done yet. :)

She is very aware of what is on TV. If is sports, she cries "BAAAWWWW!!!" very loudly over and over. It could be soccer, golf, football, baseball. . . she knows a ball. If it is an animal -- "DODDY!" (doggy) or "Baaaaahhh!" (sheep = baa baa) or "RAWRRRRR!" (lots of animals -- bears and lions and such). Usually if is an animal she doesn't know on TV, she says doggy. You'll notice I am putting these words in all caps. That is because she is shouting and pointing at the screen.

We have a ground hog that lives in our backyard, and she will stand at the window, calling it "daaaaahh-deeeee!" over and over. She does this other people's homes, as well. She stood and called for the doggy at my Uncle Ron's house in North Carolina, or at my dad's house in Illinois.

She is VERY outgoing. Sometimes while we are shopping in a store, she will say "HI" to just about everyone we pass. I'm always amazed who does not respond. I guess they are focused on shopping and just miss her, but she certainly speaks loud enough! Of course, there are plenty of people who do respond, and she usually has a decent conversation with several people we meet.

She is very interested in noses, eyes, ears, etc. right now. She says eyes quite a bit, and used to say "eyes" for every body part, but now she also says "eeers" and "beeeet" (feet), and will point to her mouth, tongue, belly, and sometimes nose and neck and teeth. She has figured out how to make a fish face, and runs to Josh with her little fishy mouth when he is leaving for work to get/give a kiss. SO CUTE!!

She is a happy and fun girl -- really becoming a toddler!

Ultimate comfort food done cheaply and healthfully!

2010-09-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

I love risotto.

And I have been making it for years based on Rachael Ray's recipe for "Sweet Pea Risotto". Before I used to keep such a close eye on our food budget, I would happily buy whatever the necessary ingredients were to make it because it is so good and everyone loved it. A short while back I was at the grocery, and balked at buying the $5 container of arborio rice that is normally used in risotto. I wondered if a medium grain rice would work ok, and decided to try it with a cheap-o bag of Kroger medium grain rice. As I understand it, arborio rice is a short grain, so I was trying to get close and only pay like 89 cents.

Home made veggie stock and cheap rice

I also make veggie stock, which means it is free instead of pretty expensive (most grocery stores do not put veggie stock on sale, just chicken and beef stock). Veggie stock is SO EASY and cheap to make -- seriously, it is free if you just save your veggie scraps (including onion peels, mushroom stems, etc.). I would be happy to show you how to make veggie stock, but this is about my risotto recipe. You can use chicken stock if you prefer or if you happened to stock up during a recent sale at the grocery store.

Here is how you make healthy, hearty, feel-good, CHEAP AND EASY risotto:

Use your biggest skillet. Or maybe the bottom of a soup pot if you don't have a big skillet.
1 onion diced small

3 carrots, peeled and chopped thinly -- saute these 2 over medium heat in a few tbsp of butter (or evoo if you prefer) for 5 minutes or so. I err on the side of cooking a little longer so everything starts to get tender.
Almost 1 pound of rice (use arborio if you want, but the medium grain was SO cheap and turned out fine!). Toss it in the butter and veggies in your skillet so the grains are coated
Add your stock, 1 cup/large splash/ladle's worth at a time. I poured mine into a saucepan and kept it on low on the stove so it would already be warmish and not cool down the pan each time I added it.

Important: you must be diligent to stir your mixture quite a bit as it absorbs. That is how your risotto becomes creamy. The rice sort of breaks down as you gently stir stir stir. I found myself almost dancing as I stirred it last night.

It will take somewhere between 4-6 cups of stock. Sorry to be inexact, but I did not measure it, just tasted it when my pan looked very full and I think I'd used about 5 cups. RR's recipe calls for 6, but she uses the whole pound of rice.

3/4 cups of Parmesan cheese -- stir into the hot mixture, and it will melt nicely. I even remove it from the heat to do this. You can use the nice shredded kind if you got it on sale, but the Aldi canned Parm is the kind I used and it was still good.

2/3 bag of frozen peas -- stir these into the whole shibang, until it looks like a good pea/rice ratio to you. If you thaw the peas first on the counter or fridge, they will heat up quickly.

Sooooo savory and hearty!

The whole thing takes slightly over 30 minutes to make. You DO have to babysit it as you add the stock, but it's not like you never can walk away. I was entertaining a 15 month old the whole time.

Here are the reasons you MUST make this:

It is so goooooood! I have gotten this feedback multiple times from non-vegetarians. Josh and Sus and I all gobble it up.

It is HEALTHY! Easy way to get lots of veggies into your dinner.

It is CHEAP! I calculated this cost under $4, probably closer to $3. It makes a big panful that would easily serve a family of 4.

It is Hearty!! Lovely for fall (yesterday was the first day of fall, but still 97 degrees here).

It is true comfort food!! The only thing more comforting is snuggling with your baby after dinner. . . on the beach, if possible. :)

New Favorites

2010-09-20T16:22:00.000-04:00

I've got a few favorites I want to link to -- in case you'd like them too!

Susie in her name "booo".

1. Principessa Bows -- I know lots of people have Etsy shops and make bows -- etc. But I LOVE this girl, and wanted to give her a little shout out (not earning anything by doing so, or even entering a contest or anything). I first heard of her when I won a green bow for Sus on Facebook, and struck up a little friendship with Alisa (who is either the sister or SIL of an elder at our church, Jeremy Pierre). She is from Ohio, and sent me a free OSU clip for Susie with my order. I just wanted to show you Susie's new clips and tell you how GREAT of prices she has. They are the best I've seen! Susie has been obsessed with her name clippy since it arrived. She'd say "boooo, boooo!" and carry it all over the house. I had to sneak it in her hair so she wouldn't pull it out to play with it. Last night when I was getting ready to put her to bed, she tried to keep it in her hand while sucking her thumb, even though that meant it was poking her nose. I tried to say "let's but the bow to bed" (she has a bow holder), but she'd shake her head vehemently. I'm sure I'll be ordering more!

2. Baby Half Off -- how did I just find this website a couple weeks ago? Every day, they feature one item at half off (or more) the retail price, and sell them until their limited quantities are gone. You can browse the archives with past items (many of the best sell out that day, obviously), and see if there are any still in stock. OR you can just check every day for stuff!

3. Arts Cow -- this website consistently features incredible deals on photo gift items. I first found it when they were doing free Post-it notes, and signed up for the e-mail offers. They send out lots of special offers for great priced deals (though not so many as to be overwhelming) as well as credit your account up front for a bunch of free stuff (including 1200 prints!). Now, you DO have to pay shipping for those, so I still haven't determined if it is a good enough deal, but I'm keeping my eyes out for great offers via e-mail. For photo books, I am still dedicated to Shutterfly, but I'm interested in trying out some other stuff with Arts Cow.

I am currently working on a project that I hope to announce in the next week or two. . . but I'll try to blog a bit between now and then. I've got some good books to mention that I've been reading lately, now that I'm done with Mommy's Piggy Tales!

From Pets to Post People: a Mishmash from My Youth -- Chapter 15

2010-09-16T13:58:00.001-04:00

I thought it over and decided that I was not going to be able to wrap up college and meeting my husband all in one last post, and that I still had some things from childhood I wanted to write about, but hadn't quite fit into one year or another. So this chapter will be about aspects of my childhood that spanned several years.

Pets

Prinny with Aunt Pat and Emily

I was not a kid that asked my parents for a puppy for Christmas. In fact, I never really remember asking for a pet. But when we GOT the pet, it was very exciting to me! Our first acquisition was a kitten -- we got her when I was about 7, I believe. We named her Peaches because she was a tabby cat with spots of peach, though people were often puzzled by her name because she didn't stay very peach. We called her "Pish" and all manner of other silly names because we just thought she was adorable. She slept on the end of our bed, and Anna and I took great comfort when Mom told us that she would be our little fire alarm if there were ever a fire (I was very scared of house fires). Peachy had the habit of sleeping on a kitchen chair, and pretty frequently was disturbed from her naps by a kid pulling out the chair and nearly sitting on her. After we moved to Green Bay, she had kittens (we got her fixed after that), much to our joy! 5 little cute kittens that we named after food: Oreo, Fudge, Marmalade, Stroganoff, and Toast. We gave away Marmalade and Stroganoff to our friends the Schuhs, and Oreo ran away (oh that cat had MEAN back claws). Anna would put Fudge in a doll stroller and feed him cat food made soggy with water with a spoon. That cat let her put doll dresses on it -- which is sort of the cat every little girl would want. We had Toast the longest. He lived in 3 states with us, and was in the tiny airplane when we flew from Montana to Illinois. Sadly, Peaches ran away when we lived in Green Bay, and probably was living happily among the cows at some farm. Anna was broken-hearted when we had to move, and Dad took her around to all the neighboring farms looking for that cat, but was unsuccessful. My sisters got other cats later on, but those were the cats that really were part of my life.

We got a Border Collie when we moved to Green Bay, and named her Princess. She wasn't all pampered or anything, so her name didn't actually fit super well. We usually called her Prinny (people probably thought we were saying "pretty"). She was a very good dog, largely due to the training school my mom took her to. She obeyed simple commands well, and never dreamed of jumping on the furniture. When we told her "Prinny, go lay down", she'd trot away, panting happily at you, just in case you changed your mind and wanted her to come back so you could scratch her head. She was a great dog to have in the country because she sounded the alarm if ever anyone drove down the driveway. I'm sure she protected us more than we knew. When I was a teenager, I enjoyed going for walks into town, and I was only allowed to go alone if I took Prinny with me. She was a great walking buddy. Mom walked with her for years, and I walked with her for a few years as well. Early on, she wore her leash all the time, which we thought was normal. Apparently most people don't leave their leash on their dog in the house. When we had a pool in Montana, Prinny had to stay inside where she couldn't see us, because she'd freak out, thinking we were drowning. In fact, she made her little feet pads all sore from running around and around on the cement by the pool, barking at us to get out of the water. Poor dog had cancer while I was in college, and Mom had to take her to put her down when I was a junior. That was the only dog I had.

Chores
Mom was a great one for teaching her kids to work. We always helped with stuff around the house as long as I can remember (for instance, I recall washing dishes standing on a chair). There were several eras in which we had EXTRA work to do, when we were moving, and showing the house frequently, when Mom was pregnant, etc. There were long stretches of time when the 3 of us older kids woke up, made our beds and tidied our own rooms, wiped down a bathroom each, vacuumed and dusted our assigned rooms (I had living room), all before breakfast. It actually went incredibly fast because we did it every day so it never got horribly dirty. We also had several experiences with "once a month cooking". Mom wanted to have meals planned out for several weeks when she was pregnant, so we helped in the kitchen ALL DAY on those occasions. That was probably when I really learned about cooking. Before that, I learned small things, and even "made dinner" a few times, but when I think through knowing about food and ingredients, it's those "Dinner's in the Freezer" events that stand out in my memory. It was so smart of my mom to teach us that!

When I think of chores, I cannot help but tell about "post people". Mom had seen this idea for making little people to stand by your front door, you know, decorating the stoop, and decided for herself and the 3 of us to begin a little family business. Mom had taken some woodworking classes and built a quilt hutch, so she was all about saws and things. This business began when we lived in Montana, where we mainly made scarecrow post people (for fall decor). The body of the scarecrow was made from a telephone post cut down to 3 feet or so, and his appendages, including a crow were all painted separately and attached. Anna and I did the majority of the painting after Mom showed us what she was thinking. Nate did a lot of the woodcutting and sanding and assembling. Mom painted the details, like faces. These sold incredibly well. Think about the early '90's and the craft/country craze! We added snowmen, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Angel to our Christmas collection. . . all sold well. We did Uncle Sams in the summer -- he was the dreaded order because you had to paint striped pants and a jacket and vest which was way more work. I tell you I could paint a Santa beard on a telephone post in my sleep to this day. When we lived in Illinois, we used the basement as our primary work area (the saw was in the garage, so Nate worked there). Some days, right before big events or rushes, it felt like we stayed in the basement from morning til night. . . Anna and I got a little loopy from the paint and the hours (she was staining the bases, so I'm sure she inhaled more fumes, haha!). I invented this idea that a creepy "Mole-man" lived in the crawl space off the basement, and lurked there watching us paint (he was very white because he did not go into the light). Surely he was the one who left paint cans open or forgot to rinse the brushes, right? The Mole-man legend has endured over a decade, and just so you can truly imagine him, his voice sounds like Joe Paterno (can you tell I was into college football when I invented him -- haha!). Our business did pretty well, and we all had decent money in our savings accounts from it. We sort of halted once Nate and I got jobs at the IGA, but the post people and the Mole-man live on.

Vintage Clothes
One really fun thing that I did as a teenager was model vintage clothing for the parks district. We would wear these outfits owned by one of the employees and she would talk about them at lady's teas or WWII vet lunches. Since I LOVED history, and LOVED experiencing other eras like this, it was a fantastic experience for me. When I went through my heavier phase I was limited to wearing only certain gowns (this one green suit from the Victorian Era was one). My friend Misty had a teeny waist and got to wear the bicycle bloomers outfit (which everyone ADORED) as well as the corset/undergarments (which everyone freaked over). No fair! After I slimmed down, I could then wear cuter 40's suits and things, which I loved very much. Anna and I and quite a range of our friends all modeled together at some point, and started buying some vintage things ourselves. Enter my love for red lipstick and nail polish and cat-eye sunglasses. Once Susan (the lady who owned all the clothing who we volunteered for) took us on a big shopping trip to these places she knew had amazing collections of vintage clothing. It was seriously one of the best shopping trips ever. We tried on 50's wedding gowns, depression-era formals (almost had Mom convinced to buy it for me!), and gobs of DRESSES. I have had many dreams about those stores in my life. I bet the clothes didn't even cost too much, it just seemed like it to us because we were broke teenagers who shopped at Goodwill.

So I have REALLY enjoyed this journey with Mommy's Piggy Tales. In fact, I just am not able to end it here. So this 15th post, which is supposed to be the last, will be followed by at least 2 more. If you want to continue to journey with me in my youth, feel free to check back the ~~next couple of Thursdays~~, ~~even though I won't be able to link up at MPT!~~ *** EDIT: during the young adult memories version of Mommy's Piggy Tales, which I will be linking up to on Mondays starting Oct 11th. I promise to tell some college stories (got out the college scrapbook. . . yesssssssss.) and the story of me and Josh. :)

Women of Encouragement

2010-09-14T21:17:00.000-04:00

Susie modeling a darling outfit from Carrie

I was challenged by this post from the True Woman blog to encourage another woman you may know. Think about the women in your life -- most of us know quite a few who would love to be encouraged like this! In no way do I think you need to limit yourself to only the desperate situations. I am so happy in my role as a wife and mother, but I still am extremely thankful for the women of encouragement in my life.

I am so thankful for a sweet friend that I know who constantly uplifts me with random words of kindness as well as gifts for Susie. Carrie is one of the most generous women I know, and I know that she sincerely does it out of love for us. She is a working mom who adores and enjoys her children, and she wants me, a working mom who also feels the same -- to be encouraged. What a gift she is to me! How blessed I am to know her! She may never quite know how thrilled I am with the adorable little things she creates for my daughter, not only because I think they are fun and cute, but also because SHE thought of ME (and Susie). It's like "how can I bless (fill in blank)" is at the top of her mind all the time without trying.

My Aunt Pat with me and Sus

I am also really grateful for the encouragement I get from my aunts. My dad's sisters have been dearer than ever to me since my mom passed away, because I know they are sweet friends to my dad, as well as extra moms for my sisters and me. They comment on my Susie pictures on Facebook, and read my blog, and send things in the mail. I LOVE having these women in my life. For some reason, it is ESPECIALLY important to me to have people I am related to love my daughter, probably because of the absence of my mom.

Me with my friend Katie when Susie was born

There are also quite a few women at church -- from young teens to grandmothers, single friends and fellow mothers -- who frequently speak kind words into my life, who treat me and my baby as if we are special, not just one of 50 moms and babies they know (and I'm certain they all do -- we have LOTS of babies at our church). There is not a time when I am not blessed by passing comments on Susie's new dress or a happy listening ear to hear about her latest achievement. I cannot express how thankful I am to be in this kind of church body -- where my brothers and sisters in Christ not only pray for your requests, but check back with you down the road to see how things turned out.

I have a friend who is the mom of 2 and her husband is on staff at their church (it is not the church I attend). She recently shared with me her struggle for joy in her position as a mom, and told me how much she'd appreciate my prayers. Today when I told her I'd been praying for her, and asked how things were, she replied with this: (and I have her permission to share this)

"So anyway, thank you so very much for your prayers. I really don't have too many people actually tell me they are praying for me so it is nice to hear. You'd think I'd hear that all the time with my husband being on church staff but I think we are looked at more to be the encourager than to be encouraged...I've learned that everyone needs to be encouraged, especially if they are trying to encourage others."

I am SO SAD that this is the case! It opens my eyes to think of many people who probably would love to hear that they are loved and prayed for! Who can you think of? Perhaps start with your own mother (if you are blessed to still have her), or pastor's wife, or other kind and godly woman you know. And as the True Woman post challenged -- put teeth to your encouragement!

Thinking I Knew What I Didn't Know, or, Being a Senior -- Chapter 14 in My Life Story

2010-09-09T22:38:00.001-04:00

Senior Picture

I'm really having a hard time summarizing my senior year of high school. In many ways I grew and changed a lot, and in many others, I was quite ignorant and naive of the world around me. No large events categorized this year, so I thought I'd break it down into relationships, spiritual growth and looking to the future.

Relationships: Steve had been my boyfriend through the first few years of high school, but we broke up the summer before our senior year. I see, looking back, how hopelessly immature I was in how it was handled, but I'm so thankful that the Lord blessed us by enabling us to be friends again not far down the road. I even went to his homecoming dance with him, just as friends, which sounds not possible for a couple of 17-year-olds, but actually was. Several years later I introduced Steve to his future wife, Andrea, who was my friend in college -- I will always be thankful for how the Lord cared for my soul during that age, when it is so easy to have relationships that cause us regrets for the rest of our lives. We did not have any regrets from our relationship, which was really just a small step up from being friends.

After that, I sort of adopted the foolish mindset that I could just look for and pursue another boyfriend if I wanted to. In my defense, I really only considered good, godly boys, but I still somehow thought it would be my job to seek out and obtain a relationship. My mom wisely warned me against chasing boys, and I would have done well to heed her, but instead I was pretty headstrong that I could "make the Lord's Will work out" (not that I really consciencely thought that, but that was the backbone of my mindset). As you can imagine, nothing came out of this sort of pursuit, and I'm thankful for that. I will certainly tell my daughter all about how not to get a boy to like you. :)

I had lots of really great girlfriends in our youth group at church, and Anna and I had lots of fun running around with them. One really fun memory was our "college trip" where 6 of us traveled together for about a week visiting colleges. Everyone was a senior that year except Anna, but she was allowed to come along on the trip since we thought our family would be moving again sometime that year, and she wouldn't have the chance later. We visited a small Bible college in Tenessee, Liberty University in Virginia, and PCC in Pensacola Florida. All those hours in the car were so fun! Since it was only girls (besides the elderly couple that drove us -- Pastor and Mrs. Batley), we felt pretty free to spend long periods of time fixing each other's hair, putting on red lipstick and taking twelve trillion pictures. Our chaperons had great patience. My friend Misty's mom and little sister Shea came with us as well, and I will never forget how good Shea was on that trip. She was just a little kid, but she quietly sat by and listened to us, and then was thrilled when we included her in our merriment.

Spiritual Growth: I have mentioned how blessed I was to be under good teaching at our church in Illinois. I was really shepherded by the preaching I heard from Pastor Joe. In addition to youth group, the senior high had a Bible study on Thursday nights with a single guy who became a great friend to me (and many of my friends as well), Kirby Meyers. He was one of the most influential people in my life, aside from my husband and parents. Kirby was young and funny, but also took the Scripture seriously, and taught us to study through books of the Bible, and apply it to our lives. He helped me think through some real questions about what the Bible teaches, and helped me to see a bigger picture of who God is, and how my faith needed to be based on Scripture. I am so thankful for how he invested in me. Not long after I went to college, Kirby and his wife (he got married right after I graduated) moved to California where Kirb went to Master's Seminary. He is now a pastor near Indianapolis, and Josh and I see him from time to time.

Looking to the Future: I think I was always a kid who thought growing up was exciting. I always looked forward to the next step. In those days, I rarely had a glimmer of nostalgia, looking back, but pretty much was just excited to look forward. Graduating from High School and preparing to go to college was no exception. As I mentioned, my family anticipated moving back to Wisconsin for my dad's job, so my mom encouraged me to apply to Maranatha Baptist Bible College, which would have just been a little over an hour from Kenosha, where we'd be living. For a variety of reasons, that move never materialized, but I chose to go to school there anyway. I visited the college with my friend Melanie and her family, and knew right away it was the school for me. When my graduation came, I invited all my co-workers to come to the ceremony, and my party, in hopes of sharing the gospel with them. I remember I gave a really nice present to one of my co-workers who also graduated the same year, an engraved pen with her name on it. I wrote a card with a heartfelt challenge to her to consider her sin, and need for Christ's forgiveness. I can honestly say that as much as I didn't know, and as sure I was that I DID already know it, I truly knew how much I wanted to live my life for Jesus Christ and be used by him.

One final note: that summer my friend Misty and I attended camp together in hopes of earning college scholarships from the camp. Kirby wrote recommendations for us to win them, and the letter he wrote for me was so kind it nearly broke my heart. Here was this person I looked up to so much describing me in more glowing terms than I could ever deserve. I only mention it here as a reminder that our affirming words have a lasting impact beyond what we could possibly know. I didn't win a scholarship, though Misty did, but I was still blessed to have that experience of Kirby's words of encouragement.

Linking up to Mommy's Piggy Tales -- only one chapter to go!

Sweet 16 -- Chapter 13 in My Life Story

2010-09-01T22:33:00.000-04:00

Some of the girl cousins on the Benzing's side at a family reunion

Armed with a driver's license, I could now drive my parent's black suburban packed full of girls to area sporting events. That summer I took us to the Danville Dans games (college summer league team in town) at historic Danville stadium. We loved eating nachos with jalepenos and having crushes on the ballplayers (though, since I was usually the oldest, it wasn't like we had the guts to TALK to them). In the fall, we'd go to football games. I was still "with" Steve, who now went to public school, and we usually brought a significant cheering section to his football games whenever possible. We'd also try to go to our friend Scott's games in Georgetown -- he was the president of our youth group and a good friend of Nate's. There were JV games on Tuesdays, and Varsity games on Friday, so even if I had to work, we could usually swing a game just about every week or more.

Speaking of work -- Nate and I started working at the Georgetown IGA in the fall of 1994. My dad worked in the grocery business and suggested that we interview there. I remember being so nervous at the interview, and stating firmly that we could not work on Wednesday nights or Sundays because of church. Of course we were hired anyway! Nate worked as a stock boy with a tie, collared shirt and apron, and I worked at the check out in my smock. We usually were scheduled on the same days, which was convenient for riding together. Nathan would drive on those country roads so fast, flying around the curves, but I was not scared of his driving! I just didn't want to be late! We worked hard, and had our share of interesting co-workers. It was my first introduction to the REAL world. Pretty sure one of the "nicer" kids I worked with was on meth. He was always looking through the health and beauty section, and buying innocent looking stuff. I totally didn't know about meth back then. The girls I worked with would invite me to go drinking or cruising or whatever with them. I never did, of course, but I tried to walk the line to keeping them liking me by not refusing to sell them lottery tickets or cigarettes (this was before the big laws about carding). I was promoted to the office not long after I worked the register, so a couple times a week I was in charge of the little office there -- counting down the drawers, making up the deposits, and stowing everything in the safe. One interesting aspect of the office was doing the lottery. I could NOT believe how many poor people came every week to buy their lotto with their lucky numbers. I also sold the scratch-offs through the window (thus me not being able to refuse to sell them to my 16-year-old coworkers). I got in debates with this one interesting customer who was a teacher at the junior high (I think -- he was super interesting) that made me interested in apologetics, and tried to witness to the girls I worked with (oh, did I ever lack boldness!!). Even though our 7 hour shifts with a 15 min break got tiring, I really liked working there. I always felt like I did a good job, and liked greeting customers and packing paper grocery bags with precision (I was a great bagger -- comes from upbringing).

Our homeschool group offered a Spanish class that year for highschoolers. My friend Jamie's mom was the teacher, since she was fluent. It was a great situation for those of us whose moms were not able to teach languages. I LOVED my class. It was really my first schooling situation, and I was determined to earn only A's (my mom rarely gave us grades). My Spanish name was Gabriela, which I thought was very pretty. We met together as a class twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Often we'd have friends spend the night Wednesday night after church, do our schoolwork together Thursday morning, and then ride with us to class. That was especially nice for our friends who didn't have their driver's license yet, because then their moms didn't have to drive them to church for class. I LOVED those Thursdays! For a while, my friend Kristie took driver's ed at the same high school my "boyfriend" Steve went to, and sometimes I'd take her to her class and do my math in the car while I waited for her. We were SO small town -- Steve would sometimes come outside and say hi to us at the car. Kristie and her sister would do their Spanish homework with Anna and me, and it was like "going to school" to do that together. I have such distinct memories of us all sitting on the floor in Anna's comfy bedroom with our A Beka Spanish books out.

While living in Illinois, my family enjoyed attending University of Illinois sporting events. We had season tickets for basketball, football and volleyball, and I loved getting to go to those games. My dad asked each of us older kids what sporting event we would choose to go to if we could pick. I loved baseball most of all, but knowing that the World Series isn't won in a night, I didn't want to risk picking that, so I picked the Super Bowl. There was no real time guarantee, but I figured my dad would get tickets pretty quickly and I was right! Super Bowl XXIX was at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida -- so I got to go to Miami in January! I was stoked, and planning accordingly, used sunless tanner on my legs. We left after Spanish class on a Thursday, and drove to Saint Louis (we were flying out of the airport the next morning). Even though we'd stopped for dinner, we felt kind of hungry when we got to our hotel that night, so we ordered a pizza and wings (told you my appetite used to be big!). That was the first time in my life I ever had heartburn -- eating wings before bed, haha! (Is this TMI? Sorry, I remember lots of specifics). I remember I tried to dress nicely for our flight, so I wore khakis and a polo shirt (planning on it being hot there). Dad picked a convertible for our rental car, so we got in the sun right away! We ended up switching hotels several times to find something quite nice enough, but we ended up in a great one packed with other people headed to the big game. There was lots to do at the stadium during the days leading up to game, so we went there -- and the beach, of course! It was really fun eating out and driving around in our convertible. The day of the Super Bowl, kickoff was scheduled at 6:00pm, and the gates opened at 11:00am. We arrived at 9:00. My dad usually operates in "hurry up and wait" mode. It was fine with me. We got in line to enter the stadium, and got to our seats while it was still REALLY empty. Watching all the set up and people was almost as good as the game -- it was a big blow out: 49ers over the Chargers. In fact, at the end of the 3rd quarter, dad suggested leaving early, beating the traffic and going to eat somewhere good. As we left we said "you know we can't tell anyone we did this! Leaving the Super Bowl early!" HAHA! I was dreaming of quesadillas, so I was perfectly happy to go out to eat. That trip was so fun! I remember calling my friends from the Super Bowl on my dad's cell phone (he was cutting edge then) and trying not to brag, but still be excited.

Me with my siblings and cousins at Easter 1995

My brother graduated from High School in 1995. It was the first year there was a group of homeschoolers who wanted to have a graduation together, so my mom organized the first graduation ceremony for that homeschool group (and amazingly -- the traditions they started that year pretty much carry on EXACTLY the same today). The kindergarten class wore white little caps and gowns and performed one thing they learned that year in homeschool -- my sister Emily was in the kindergarten graduating class. The 8th graders wore formals and had their parents read something about them, praising them for their accomplishments and character. The seniors each made speeches and then took flowers to their mothers as a thank-you (this year my sister Abby took each of her older sisters a rose since my mother was not there at her graduation). Our Spanish class sang some songs and read scripture passages in Spanish. I loved Nathan's graduation -- we had a huge party at our house and it was so fun! I had no idea how quickly our family would change, since he was already dating his future wife, Janet (Nate would sit on the roof of our house, with a large photo of Janet, listening to classical music, and doing his schoolwork) . It's amazing to think about when I look back.

I'm linking up to Mommy's Piggy Tales!

Makeup and Growing Up -- Chapter 12 in My Life Story

2010-08-26T14:10:00.015-04:00

Gretchen age 15

Anna and I were promised the privilege of getting to wear makeup when we turned 15. Lip gloss and even lighter lipsticks did not count in my mom's book, and we'd been allowed to don those since junior high. Sure enough, on my 15th birthday, my mom gave me a makeup bag with eyeshadow and mascara in it! I didn't really know how to do my eyes very well, but I still liked the grown up feeling it brought. Ironically, my mom gave me a Mary Kay compact with eyeshadows and blush in it a couple of years ago for my 30th birthday. It was the last birthday I celebrated with her, and it's funny to think that my gift was similar to the one I'd been given 15 years earlier. Then, makeup was the opportunity to look pretty and grown up! Now, makeup is pretty much a special occasion thing for me. Except lipstick. I always need that.

Enjoying a salad from Burger King. Oh yeah.

When thinking of my 15th year, I recall how my body suddenly caught up with itself. Gone were the days of swimming, skiing and playing sports, and here were the days of learning to cook and eat. . and eat. . . I wasn't fat, but I certainly started gaining some weight. All of the sudden I could buy clothes from the misses department. . . in the middle range sizes where there was lots of selection. I felt somehow less like myself -- I think because I'd always been so skinny, and it was strange to look in the mirror and see a rounder face. I did love to eat, though! I didn't think it was worth cutting back some, so I just tried to forget about it. I'd go through short periods of time where I thought I'd give it a try, and I'd eat salad at a fast food restaurant or not eat sweets or something. But I never really saw a difference on the scale, and I wrote myself off as someone who had no willpower. Even though I was possibly somewhat unhealthy, I'm still thankful that I didn't torture myself with body image issues that did plague me down the road. It wasn't by any maturity of my own, but probably more due to having lots of good friends who didn't talk about diets or weight or anything silly like that. I'm sure it was from their example of just being who they were that helped me not worry too much.

My mom and sisters at the Children's museum

My friend Misty emerged as a major player in my life around this time. I remember at one point she told me that all the boys liked me because I was new. This statement cracks me up now! I knew it was totally untrue, both the fact that all the boys liked me (only one did -- the rest proved they didn't by helping my brother fart on our heads and other such lovely things), and also the fact that I was just liked because I was new. I didn't see myself as new at all anymore, and after several months of writing notes back and forth with Steve, I knew he didn't like me just because I was new. I totally challenged Misty's statement, and I think we started getting along really well shortly thereafter partly because we were both pretty bold figures, and also because we just spent more time in proximity to one another. Our little sisters were friends, and I could count on Misty coming along to hang out if Shea came over to play with Emily. Our homeschool group at that time was woefully small, and Misty and one other girl, Brooke, were the only older girls in it from our church. Clearly, that did not provide enough girls for a basketball team, but we definitely had fun herding our little sisters around the Indianapolis Children's Museum together.

Misty was a unique teenage girl in a myriad of ways. Her mother bought most of her clothes at rummage sales and Goodwill, but she always styled those ensembles willingly, and with an air of confidence. She would say about herself "I look good in hats" and wore hats a lot. That kind of confidence was unheard of at my age. Misty did not mean it pridefully -- she had just been told she looked good in hats a lot, and so she knew it! She was also good at speaking, and when she met adults, she looked them in the eye and shook their hand. Her family was originally from Texas, so she was always saying "sir" and "ma'm" and always called all adults "Mr.or Mrs. so-and-so" even if they told us to call them by their first name. She was a good girl to have around as a friend. She didn't take writhe and quake about boys or what people thought of her. I'm glad she was my friend and rubbed off on me somewhat!

Near the end of my 15th year, my dad enrolled me in a driving school so I could take driver's ed. Since I was homeschooled, and it was summer, this was the only way it would work for me to be able to finish before I turned 16 (the obvious goal = getting the license ON 16th birthday). Pretty much everyone else at that driving school were high school drop outs or kids that had lost their licenses or something. I was this little green Christian homeschooler who knew nothing about the world, and could only begin to guess what the crass things on their t-shirts meant. In effort to show my faith, I wore all my best Christian t-shirts. I say that tongue in cheek now, but at the time, I sincerely wanted those kids to believe in Jesus, and I figured this would be a good way to start. Pretty sure those kids thought I was a loser! I totally had a crush on the teacher -- his name was Mark Bertram (I only remember his name because I wrote a character into one of my stories after him), and he wore wire-rimmed glasses. Our driving instructor was this older man who had me and the other girl in my car drive to impound lots and junkyards where he would show us cars that had been destroyed by drunk drivers. He repeated over and over "young ladies, you never ever get in the car with a young man who has had too much to drink." We also had to drive to Amish country. Lucky for us, we didn't actually see any buggies on the road.

And so ends my 16th year! Linking up to Mommy's Piggy Tales.

My Neighbor Ting

2010-08-24T22:34:00.001-04:00

Susie playing blocks with her little friend. Apparently she finds him funny!

It's been fun getting to know some of my neighbors better recently. In our apartment complex, it seems like the majority of the tenants are couples with one child, and quite a few of them are Chinese. I met Ting one day in the spring, when Susie and I were randomly walking and she appeared out of nowhere and offered to show me the way to the park. She has one son, and is expecting a second child, a girl.

She is very very friendly, and since she can no longer work here, she is usually pretty available because she stays home all day. I would say most people who live here know her, since she takes her child outside to play just about every day, and she is really outgoing. Susie loves her because she is so smiley and obviously likes babies.

I wanted to have a baby shower for her, to celebrate this child, especially since it is rare in her culture to have more than one child (she has been very clear that she does not want any more kids after this). When I told her we wanted to have a party for her, she told me she didn't need anything for the baby and she didn't want us to waste our money buying her presents. She was firm on that. She said we could just have a party and talk and "bring dishes", so that's what we decided to do! Two of my girlfriends who also are/have been Ting's neighbors came and brought their children to play. Let me just tell you, our living room was a sea of toys!! It's what comes of 4 toddlers getting out every toy possible at the same time -- haha!

I made cookies, and when Ting arrived, she saw me getting them off the cookie sheet and said "oh, you made that? I can't make that." According to her, ovens are pretty rare in China, and if anyone wants something baked, they would just buy it from the store, because it is not expensive. I offered to teach her how to bake sometime, and she seemed really eager, even though she did not care for the cookies I made. She said she doesn't like sweets, but her husband and son do. So maybe she will want to learn for them! She did bring over some bean soup, which, contrary to what you might assume was QUITE sweet!! She said it had raw sugar in it. Hmmm. I can't say I gobbled it up, but I was able to graciously "share" my bowl with Susie. I told her I couldn't make anything like she made!

Ting goes to a Chinese church here that is a ministry of a local church here in town. When I ask her about it, she says she goes every week, but we have rarely been able to talk much about beliefs. I know they have a good relationship with the pastor, because he chose their son's name, and now they are asking him for a good name for their daughter!

This relationship has been really interesting for me. Relating to her takes effort, not just because of the language barrier, but also to just think of things to talk about that she will be interested in. However challenging it has been, I've found myself really truly enjoying her company and friendship. When I've been able to throw behind me any tentativeness about somehow misunderstanding her or making her feel foolish, I'm then able to be much more open to listening and learning.

Links and Things

2010-08-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

1. My sister wrote this beautiful post on her new blog about our niece, Mercedes, whom she has cared for since my mom passed away. Wonderful memories. Read it here.

2. Made this 5 minute sauce for lunch and it was outstanding and easy. Another home run for Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Note: I omitted some of the red pepper flakes to make it a touch milder for Susie, but it still had plenty of kick!

3. Started reading Then Comes Marriage purely out of interest, and it is really fascinating!! Part history, part sociology, Rebecca Janney looks at the cultural history of American families.

4. Got my first copy of Kiwi magazine in the mail this week and for the most part, enjoyed it. There were several good ideas in the articles, as well as some healthy recipes. I got this subscription for free from Yo Baby Yogurt, when I redeemed my reward points. Not sure if they're still doing it, but it might be worth checking!

5. Our family took this picture last night during an after dinner walk along the river. What a lovely time of year this is!

Major Change at 14 Part B

2010-08-19T22:34:00.002-04:00

So in part 1, I left off with my family getting settled in rural Illinois after our big move from Montana, living a rather quiet life. My brother had been our main set of wheels before we moved, but alas, here we were in a state that required you to be 16 to drive, so after 5 months of him getting us around, we had to either walk or have Mom drive us places. One time we walked from our house into the tiny nearby town for our piano lesson. It was just a little over a mile, so not bad at all, but we certainly didn't enjoy having to walk!

We visited a larger church in Danville, Illinois -- Calvary Baptist. I remember so clearly that Sunday that my brother wore a suit and his cowboy boots (this was NORMAL attire where we came from), and they were certainly the source of some attention. Right away, I had high hopes for our joining this church. It had a large youth group, and several of the kids were homeschooled (a small number in comparison to Montana, but nonetheless, it was a bonus). People sat by us that first in Sunday school, and even though we didn't know the songs they sang or the motions that went along with them, there was a friendly, genuine vibe that I really appreciated. What a blessing this church turned out to be. We found a home there with those people, and instead of our homeschool group, our youth group soon became the center of our social world.

At this point in my life, the Lord really gave me the grace to learn and know Him more dearly. The preaching I was sitting under at the church was opening up my mind and heart to understand God and his Word. Pastor Joe was just full of grace and focused so directly on Scripture. I am so thankful to this day for the teaching I received there. This was just the very beginning of it, but praise the Lord he worked in my heart at this time.

The youth group had lots of great activities -- many based on serving the members of the church. Our first activity was yard work for some of the widows and senior members. I looked so forward to coming to youth group on Wednesday nights. During the holiday season we spent several weeks baking cookies to take with us when we went Christmas caroling to the shut ins. One night during the baking time, I took note of a girl who is still one of my dearest and best friends, and watching her scoop that cookie dough and manage the kitchen, I conscientiously thought "Misty is a gem". It would be several years before we really gelled, but my first impression turned out to be right.

It was at this point that I entered my "Janette Oke" phase. The church library was teeming with her titles, and lots of the girls liked to read them, so of course I sucked them up. They fed my growing appetite for romance. . . what young teenage girl isn't rather obsessed with romance? I was living in my own world much of the time, writing stories, and working in the kitchen like a fiend (Mom probably appreciated it) because those pioneer-era girls were always cooking and things in the stories. I was constantly daydreaming. It was actually probably a bit unhealthy, and I recall Mom telling me that I needed to join the family sometimes because I was frequently off on my own so I could write and daydream. She was right. I wrote this series of stories set right before the turn of the century about a girl name Chassie who worked a nanny for a widowed young rich man named Weston (you'll never believe it but they fell in love). Over time, I added on to the series by writing about Chassie's daughter Becca who was brilliant and went to Harvard and married a baseball player who she thought died in the Spanish-American War, but ended up playing for the Red Sox in the first ever World Series.

At some point in January, I could tell my brother's friend Steve kind of liked me, and we started writing notes to each other all the time. We were way too shy to talk in person, though. We probably said 2 or 3 sentences in the course of several months! I think we possibly said who we thought would win the Super Bowl and that was about it. Seems strange for a romantic 14 year old, but looking back, I'm pretty happy that we were so reserved. In May, Steve called my dad and asked him if he could sit with me at the teen formal the youth group was having. I was super impressed that he asked my dad and was given permission. Mom made dresses for Anna and me to wear, according to our choosing. These dresses are still hanging in a closet at my parents house, and have come in handy for costumes for my little sisters along the way.

As summer came, and my 14th year wound down, I got to be a part of one of the most exciting things in my life: a musical. I had always longed to be on stage, and our youth group was putting on a performance of the "Let's Go to the Rock" which was a 1950's Christian musical with lots of morals. We performed it at this restaurant in downtown Danville and it was one of the most fun things in my life. I played the daughter of the main character, which meant I had lots of lines and even a song where the guy who played my brother and I did a "rap" about how our parents didn't understand us! Classic. For my costume I wore clothes from my parent's closets, including my dad's letter jacket. I LOVED acting. Loved it. Wanted nothing more than to do another show and another and another. I'm so thankful that the Lord has channeled my desire for drama to using it as a gift to enhance my teaching when I work with kids! In college, a drama teacher once referred to me as someone who had "abandon" to her drama class -- and I wasn't even in the class!

So here ends my 14th year. At the same time as the musical, Molly and Jessie, our besties from Montana, flew out to stay with us for a week or so. And we had a grand time with them -- but truly my life was miles away from where it had been the year before.

Linking up to Mommy's Piggy Tales!