motherhood

Even my 2 minutes in the bathroom are with serious trepidation about what is being done in the rest of the house while I am not supervising.  This stage of life is exhausting with the constant supervision.  Just in the past two weeks we have had broken lamps, more than one completely torn up book, toys dumped everywhere, mini puzzle pieces strewn throughout all rooms, an entire shampoo bottle spilled all over the rug, dirty diapers taken off and bottoms bared, poop and pee on the rug more than once (and we are not even potty training), broken picture frames three times, as well as the usual messes made at mealtimes and every other time.

And yet, the promise that keeps ringing in my ears,
Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  

Thank you, Lord, for your unfailing new mercies every morning!  And Your Presence!!!  May this new year be one of rest in Him...

sacrificial love

He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

We had gone to the church to play as a family.  While there, E disobeyed.  I told her she would receive a spanking once we got back home.  We got back in the car and I reminded her of this.  Then D played a game that we have played in the past.  It is the "me too" game.  If you remember past posts, A used to reply "Me!" enthusiastically and raise her hand in response to any question as long as the majority did the same...this including getting a spanking.  So today D said, "Who wants a spanking?  Me!"  A, meanwhile, has gotten smarter and said, "Not me!"  Michael asked if D wanted a spanking in place of E.  Of course not!  This got us to talking about how that is exactly what Jesus did for us, only far greater.  He took our discipline upon himself.

When we got home, M got the spanking spoon out.  Once again, M asked D if he wanted to get a spanking on behalf of E.  M said, "You don't have to, but if you want to get a spanking, I will not give one to E."   D thought about it a few minutes.  Then, he responded very seriously and soberly.  "Yes."  I made sure he understood what he was saying.  M told him to explain it to E.  So D walked up to E and said, "Elizabeth, I love you.  I am going to get a spanking so you don't have to for your sin.  Just like Jesus did."

At this point I was sobbing!  (and have a couple times since when I have related this story to others).  D has had plenty of spankings, and I knew it would not hurt him, but somehow it just seemed so unfair and I was so touched by his love for his sister.  Wow!  For someone who has grown up knowing of Jesus' sacrifice all my life, I know I take this for granted.  This was a new visual that really brought home his sacrifice and the depths of his love for us!  Thank you to my very precious son!

Out of the mouth of babes...

26 +15 years of maturity

Christmas might be over but the celebrations continued.  My wonderful husband has a birthday three days after Christmas.  This year we got to celebrate it thrice.  The first time was a casual lunch with some friends right after church on his actual birthday.  They so sweetly invited us and some other dear friends over.  It was not meant for a birthday celebration, but I brought along a cake and candle, and we sang to M.  

The second celebration was later that evening.  M and I went on our first outing together (not as a couple yet) to the Houston Nutcracker 15 years ago.  M had put together a group of singles for this event and invited me a month earlier on the evening we met.  He may not have known it, but I jumped at the chance to get to know him better so I decided to go.  Fifteen years ago we went to Birraporetti's before dinner and then the performance.  This time M wanted to reenact dinner too so he made a reservation at the restaurant.  He warned me when we got there that it had received some poorer reviews recently.  And despite the quick service--too quick to demonstrate anything but probably frozen/rewarmed food, the food was indeed rather poor.  We joked that everything seemed to have some variation of a bland alfredo sauce on it.  Stuffed mushroom caps (stuffed with about 2 pieces of wilted spinach and doused in a tiny bit of cheese and the key ingredient-alfredo-y sauce).  Shrimp Scampi (no sign of garlic or butter sauce, but you guessed it!  Alfredo sauce on the pasta).  Almond crusted tilapia which was not supposed to have any sauce. (again, topped with a piccata sauce that seemed to have alfredo sauce as the base).  And for dessert, we ended up with a very uninspired creme brulee (hardly caramelized at all!).  Overall, a memory we will leave just that in the future.  

After dinner, we walked the short distance (yeah!  since wet and bitterly cold!) to the Wortham Center for the Nutcracker.   This was far more pleasant.  Only it was an unfortunate combination with the lack of sleep in previous nights, the late hour that the performance started, and the beautiful/soothing music emanating through the theater.  

We came home and M opened a few more presents.

Our last hurrah for Michael's birthday was a double date with my bro and sis-in-law to go see Unbroken two days later.  I was pleasantly surprised at how they kept a bit of the faith-elements.  But, also a bit disappointed that they ended the movie as early as they did since they missed about 1/3 of his life covered in the book.  This is the time period when Louie Zamperini did a 180 degree change and gave his life unwaveringly to the Lord. Two sentences on screen at the end of the movie were all that was devoted to this.  Still a good movie but nowhere near as powerful as the book.  Book highly recommended!!!

"Surprise. Cookies!" and surprise cookies

Psalm 34 "8Taste and see that the Lord is good;


The last Christmas activity this year was a cookie exchange hosted by a friend.  What yummies there were there!  New recipes to try when I have the time  to spend 1+ hours to make some treats.  I almost felt bad bringing my cookies that took all of 15 minutes to make.  Almost... :)

(PS,  I made surprise cookies.  really~ that is their name)

new robes and artillery

Isaiah 9 "2The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 6 6For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 7Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this."

2 Corinthians 10 "4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."

Isaiah 61 "10 
I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."



Christmas Day this year was just us.  We ate a leisurely breakfast, read the rest of the Christmas story begun the day before, started brisket for early dinner, and finally sat down to open presents around 10:30 am.  Unfortunately, the morning had already gotten off to a rough start with A (who continued to be cranky all day).

Present opening took a while as we went in turns again and had to stop and unpackage all the kids toys.  In total, M probably spent 30+ minutes just trying to open the theft-prevention packaging.  The girls got several dolls and one Princess set took him 10 minutes alone to untie/untwist and all the rest.  There were two umbrellas, two books, headbands, a nightlight, legos, the aforementioned dolls, and a very special first necklace that reads "Beloved."  But this year was the year of the dress-up attire and weapons (2 swords, 1 nerf gun, and a nerf bow and arrow set).  Yeah!  ...Both dress-up and weaponry are things that are used every single day at our house.   And yes, that is two identical Elsa dresses...no fighting over who gets to wear it!  This dress promoted dancing/singing by E.  There were the usual yearly ornaments (D- soccer ball to commemorate 1st and 2nd seasons playing, E- a older ballerina, and A- a baby sister ballerina, the family one- a cute hedgehog)  And M got several tools and I got exactly what I picked out and purchased!  :)

more than once was Abigail's bottom lip stuck out...