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Pictures in the Snow

Creed's Party

Some highlights of Creed's fourth birthday party. We did more of what he wanted for him this year. He's such an introvert naturally, but seems to be growing out of it. He hasn't interacted with others very much at all at his previous birthday parties. So we invited the people he asked us to invite, and it ended up being smaller than usual. That made it easier on everybody. He also is so into dinosaurs, so we went with that theme. I found a great idea for a cute cake online and copied it. We let the kids play outside (glad parents didn't mind the slight wetness), ate dinner, did cake/candles/singing, ate cake, watched Creed open presents, then went out to the garage to hit on the dinosaur pinata. Fun stuff. It was nice to see our boy enjoy it so much. :-)

Happy Birthday My Sweet Little Boy

Creed is 4 today. What a treasure he is. He has become so independent and full of his own thoughts and feelings just in the last month. He talks about "being a big boy," and "growing older so he can get soccer shoes, socks, and shirt" (like brother), and having arms or feet as long as mine (not likely). He is our little cuddly guy. He's super affectionate...when he is still. He loves big hugs, loud kisses, and holds my hand at times when we watch movies together. He's incredibly ticklish and loves to be tickled. He likes his back scratched for as long as anyone is willing to do it. He loves to pretend-play with Corban and play chase with Carys. He's becoming such a good brother to them both. His interests are dinosaurs, cars, heroes, movies, books, and patterned socks. While I absolutely love the very-large hands and feet of my Corban, I seriously love the petite hands and feet of my Creed. Love their differences. Creed is tall for his age, but has such cute little hands and feet. (I can say that while he's too young to read this post.) I love his big green eyes and his adorable facial expressions. He has an amazing laugh. What a wonderful boy.

Psalm 8...from the mouths of babes

"God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you,
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble."

I love our family. I love that our children LOVE to worship God. They want to sing and dance all the time, and it always has to be worship songs. "Sing me a song about Jesus, Mommy." (Creed) "Is this worship music Mommy? Make sure it is!" (Corban) "Jesus loves me this I know..." (Carys) Corban loves songs that talk about how God loves us, even though we still struggle with sin. He's at that point where we are talking a lot about the fact that everyone sins, and recognizing it when it happens. He loves the song that says, "I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul." Creed likes Mommy's singing mostly, but says every song on KSBJ (Christian radio in Houston) is his favorite when Corban says it. Carys copies every song we sing, "He love us, Oh how He loves us..." Our children have a passion for praising Jesus, just as we do...and I love it. When I read this psalm from the Message Bible, I thought, "Isn't it so true?" Who can stamp out the absolutely doubtless faith of a child in the fact that Jesus is real, that He made us, that He deserves our praise? No wonder Jesus rebuked the disciples for trying to deny the children the right to come to our Lord. We can take lessons from them.

Just Need to Babble

I'm so tired. I have been asleep by 7:30 or 8:00 every night, but I wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 AM. So I think I'm still stuck on the old time, the one before daylight savings changed everything. I think it's funny that for once in my life my kids have adjusted to it quicker than me. Or am I just getting older? Or is it the recovering from health problems?

Speaking of recovering, I've never in my life had it come so slowly. I can't even explain all the very basic things I took for granted before getting sick, having surgeries, and having to sit on my duff for so many days. Quite honestly I don't remember doing all that sitting and laying down because I slept so much. I think God took something from me that was a matter of pride. I didn't think I was stronger than others, like competing or anything, but I definitely did not shy away from a task that required using the strength of my body. I think it's the "little man's" complex. In college I used to try to lift just as much as any guy when we set up and took down our sound system when we were out for a weekend of singing. Not only have I ALWAYS considered myself perfectly able when it comes to being strong physically, but I also didn't let others help me much. Now if anyone out there, especially ladies, is good at this, I'd love to know it. I personally don't believe women in general are very capable of asking for or accepting help...not naturally anyway. I think that because God made us the way we are, with our good organization skills and good managing of our homes. But we all take it too far into some area of our lives where we try to control like a freak. That's why they call it "control freak." Anyway, I have been dethroned. No longer strong physically, able to lift heavy loads (kids), run and wrestle, or clean/cook/care for children all day long without getting more tired than I can believe possible. No longer (at least for a time) in control of my children and home. Even now I cannot do everything required in one day. I have to choose, and let other things go. And everyday I overdo...every single day. Maybe this is why I fall into bed before 8:00 PM like a pregnant woman. Maybe my weakened body is trying to do just as much as a woman's body nourishing and making room for a baby. Except for the heavy load, I think I feel the same or worse than that...depending on the day.

Well, all of this is not such a downer. I just want some understanding, I guess, for what this is all like. I walked half a mile today, and I had pain where they took out my right ovary, pain under my left rib, and pain at times just in my whole stomach area...not to mention the leg muscle soreness!!! And this was all day, not just during the walk. Unbelievable. I've never been so weak in my life. But the non-downer part of it is that I have been dethroned. And it's good. Because that means Christ is on the throne. He is my strength. Not that I have "arrived" when it comes to fully trusting God in everything ALL the time. But I'm really enjoying Him. I'm having fun worshiping Him. I'm so much more thankful for such small things.

Recently Johan and I bought a copy of The Message Bible. Man I love how plain the wording is. Everything is new to me as I read how everything sounds in simple words. Love it. Here's some very fun wording of the end of Psalm 33:

"We're depending on God,
he's everything we need.
What's more, our hearts brim with joy
since we've taken for our own his holy name.
Love us, God, with all you've got-
that's what we're depending on."

I love that. Have you told Him you needed Him to love you with all He's got? That His love is what you're depending on? I've asked these very words before. I love that God is so upfront, intimate, and strong in His wording...nothing held back. Incredibly cool.

I'm done babbling. :-)

Last Saturday's Fun

Last Saturday we were a busy family. First we went to Corban's last soccer game. Two weeks ago I finally figured out that Corban would pay more attention and try harder if I bribed him. So I told him if he tried harder to kick the ball in the goal or at least in the right direction, I would buy him a new hot wheels car. It worked like a charm and he kicked the ball down the field twice toward another teamate for goals. Corban got upset that day when he realized he wasn't going to be the one to score the goal. But I explained that he would still get the prize because all I wanted him to do was try harder. You see, Corban likes soccer for many things, but none of those reasons are for actually playing the game yet. That's okay. We're not worried. It was fun for him to be with friends, he got great exercise, and it was a great opportunity for him to do something special. He loved it. He just didn't love the game to the point of trying to score or play well. Anyway the bribe worked two Saturdays ago, and it worked again last Saturday. Johan took these pictures, and he said that even though it looks like Corban isn't doing anything, a couple of the pictures are right after he had just kicked it. He even got close to scoring, but the other team kicked it out right at the edge of the goal. I found myself surprised at how much those little 4 and 5-year-olds really got better at the game after 8 weeks. It was fun for Creed too, but not at first. Creed can't wait to be old enough to play and to have his own soccer shoes, so that was hard at first. But halfway through he made a friend...practically a girlfriend, since it was kind of a brutal friendship. The little blond in the pictures was kind of rough with him, but he liked it for the most part. I guess I've taught my boys so well that they cannot hurt girls, so she was scratching and hitting on him (probably the way she plays with her own brother), and he would tell her to stop, but she wouldn't. That kind of stuff. I'm proud of him because he never did any of it back. Carys also had fun just being outside for all these soccer games. At first it was hard to make sure she didn't run out in the middle of the soccer field. She escaped a few times into the soccer field. One time another parent retreived her, which was kind of embarrassing to me because I had lost track of my child. But don't we all. She runs off so quickly. Oh, and on this particular day, my mom was asked to hold a baby girl (so cute). Carys was so happy to see her and talk to her, and this little baby laughed and cooed at her. It was adorable!!!

The next part of our day involved lunch and some naps. That was nice. When we all woke up we went to our old church for a special event for kids. There was a mini car show, bounce houses, and a small petting zoo-type area. The only pictures we got of that are of me and Carys in the animal pen. She loved the animals. It was her first time to see real ducks, chickens, sheep, and a pony. She was so fascinated. The boys spent their time looking at old cars and sliding down the huge inflatable slide.

Next we went home to get into costumes. We had to be at our church fairly quickly, so we changed and left. Our church had such a fun event. It was almost old-fashioned because it was all booths and no bounce houses, but I loved it for that. The games were so fun and creative. I loved it. It is an incredible ministry. We were able to have it inside the gym, which was great for avoiding mosquitos. (Those PESKY bugs are still swarming us!!! I've never had to use so much bug repellant on our family in one year.) Well, unfortunately the pictures are few for the event at our church too. I sat most of the time, feeling really sore and tired. I had done more in that day since my health troubles started. I'm gradually doing more and more, but that day I overdid. Tough not to do. And I was determined to have fun with my family. Anyway, the pictures are also not so great quality. I've yet to get good pictures in our gym. Not sure why. But we did get a few pictures at home of our superheroes. Carys was uncooperative in standing with her brothers, as you can see. But what we got is cute. Time for me to quit jabbering and let you look at pictures!