Still No Henry

Pregnancy update:

God, in His kindness to me, has not seen fit to deliver Henry to us yet. My due date was the 15th, and under normal circumstances I would be anxious to get on with the delivery. However, I have been hit with a severe cold, one that required me to lie still in a dark room for several days and practice deep relaxation to deal with the sinus pain. I know God will give me the strength to face whatever He gives me to do, but from my human perspective I didn't know how I would face labor under the circumstances.

I thank God every day for His gentle mercies. Although being ill isn't fun (thanks, Adam), my mother was able to come stay with us several days ago and has been caring for my family and house. She is nursing me back to health, and my family has very little disruption while mommy is incapacitated. Thanks, Dad, for loaning Mom to us for so long. She is such a blessing.

Clean Up

Some may notice that I took a few blogs off my "family & friends". There is nothing to it than some clean-up. The blogs I took off either had declared themselves inactive, hadn't updated for six months or more, or were just gone.

Titus Learns to Problem Solve

I listened to a lecture a while back on educating boys. One of the recommendations the speaker made was to be slow to solve problems for your children. He thought it important to allow their brains to develop problem solving skills without the parent circumventing it.

Today Katie pulled peanuts out of the pantry--peanuts still in the shell. Katie had the strength to de-shell the peanuts herself, but Titus hasn't developed the strength required in his hands yet, being just two. Katie left a small pile of shells on the counter where she opened her nuts. Titus brought me his first peanut when he resigned himself to his reality. I opened it and went back to whatever I was doing. Titus never came to me again to open his peanut. Instead, when I brought my attention back to the kids, I found peanut shells all over the floor. I watched Titus as he set a peanut on the floor and then crushed the shell with his foot, and then he retrieved the peanut from the debris.

Thanks to my handy dandy Swivel Sweeper, easily operated by even two-year-olds, Titus enjoyed his peanuts, developed problem solving skills, and then got to clean up after his tasty treat. I think I would have calmly cleaned up his mess even if I'd had to do it, but just in case I had trouble staying calm, I'm glad I have my Swivel Sweeper so we didn't have to find out.

I Need To Try Harder

Katie said the following to me several nights ago, so I don't remember what facilitated it. I enjoyed it, though and thought I'd share it. I chuckle to myself every time I think about it.

"Mother, I'm very hard to please, and you need to try harder."

Dad was within hearing and proceeded to lecture her on why this was not an acceptable thing to say or even think. I suppose this illustrates why the Bible and God-fearing parents are necessary. Our hearts are born wicked, and left to themselves, they only get worse.

Getting Ready For A Staged Christmas Picture

I finally did it. I set aside everything for several hours to press collars, curl hair, and dress my kids up for our annual Christmas picture. My favorite of all of the pictures to come of the endeavor was this one.
Titus doesn't have brothers to ridicule him yet, so he didn't know that wanting to try his sister's curlers on was inappropriate for a boy. I'm sure he'll be glad when he's older that I shared this picture with you all. But if you are fearing for his masculinity, I just asked him as he was laying in my arms and looking at me adoringly, "What are you thinking about, Little Man?"
"Poop!"

Children and the Body of Christ

I referred to an article by Andree Seu of World Magazine some time ago. In the article she says, "Delight covers a multitude of parenting shortcomings. You may be too strict or too lenient and still come out all right, if you delight in your children."

All of us will err on one side or another, either being too strict or too lenient. Matt and I struggle, with greater and lesser success at times, against our tendency to be too lenient. I don't want my child to be at the mercy of his passions because I was too lenient, but I also do not want my child to struggle with the complications that can come from an overly strict upbringing. Because we are not infinite, omniscient, and because we are fallen, err we will, the struggle for balance will continue through this life. I trust that the struggle is part of God's will for us as parents and for our children. It is good because He is good and loves us.

A few weeks ago I heard of a friend's child being called spoiled. I admire this friend's consistency and goals for her child, and so I puzzled over why someone would call her child spoiled. Certainly if that child is spoiled, I shudder to think what they would think of my children. This child has a delightful personality that I enjoy. She is confident and happy and quick to engage others. She is not sinless, and she is still very much in the training years, only a toddler. I would not expect perfect performance from anyone in training, and I know her parents take training seriously.

As I puzzled over this reaction to such a child, I wondered if some people think children should only sit quietly in the corner and never disturb their own comfort. I was not like this child with the big personality, considering everyone a friend. I love to see this, because I know the pain of being in a group and shyness causing such discomfort. I think it is a great strength and asset when a person isn't mindful of the risk of rejection and can really serve others with their personalities. I would hate for this little one to be taught that she is not valued, especially among the community of believers God has placed her in.

Jesus opened his arms to the children and rebuked his disciples for trying to keep the children away. It seems to me it would follow that children and their individual personalities ought to be embraced with open arms by the body of Christ on this earth. When one calls a child spoiled because he has not been taught to only speak when spoken to and never disturb the peace and quiet of the adults, he probably would be happier in a community with no children. I think they call them retirement communities. I for one choose the noisy life of a healthy, growing church full of Christians in training, whatever the age.

More Violence, Please

Netflix has a great feature called Watch Now making it possible to stream movies directly from their site. I was choosing a cartoon for the kids to watch the other night, and I settled on a Hans Christian Anderson cartoon, The Emperor's New Clothes. Kate and Titus loved his story The Ugly Duckling, so I thought this would go over well, too.

A little while later Katie came out and said, "That wasn't very interesting. There was no violence. I need more violence."
"You need more violence?" I asked, trying to stifle the giggles.
"Yes. I need more violence."