blessings and trials

I sorely miss my writing time!  Just can't seem to make it happen much lately.  I researched for a post on the "Lord's Prayer" (as a model for prayer), but since then, I haven't had time to get it all down.


My Gratitude List:


- The mouse was caught at exactly 9:00 PM tonight, via a glue trap.  So grateful for the Lord's quick response to that fervent prayer.  Now we pray that his short stay here didn't involve any furry relatives.  


Tomorrow I shall suggest to the children that we write a children's book about two mice who take over the house after 11:00 PM.  Have you noticed how many children's stories there are about mice?  An insane number!  We shall contribute one of our own--minus the glue trap, of course.  Something in me wants to put a happy, humorous spin on this rather horrible problem.


- Sisters "helping" me sweep the driveway


- A clean, safe home in a safe neighborhood, with room for my children to develop optimally.


- Homeschooling, and the blessing of sheltering my children until they stand strong in Christ Jesus


- Newberry Medal-winning novels. We've read two since I last wrote an author's corner.  Hoping to get to that soon.


- Remembering that Mary used her last pair of clean underwear this morning.  I was headed to bed after a late night last night, but I thankfully remembered just in time to put in a bleach load of whites.


- Simple Mom's Compassion post  Do You Feel Guilty?  Don't.


- Passionate Homemaking's Compassion post  The Power of a Letter.


- Chatting at the Sky's Compassion post  How Stickers Can Change the World


- Shaun Grove's Compassion Post  Meeting the Neighbors Next Door


- Keeper of the Home's Compassion Post  Because I'm Afraid That I Will Forget

- As I type now, I hear another mouse caught in a glue trap under the stove.  My countenance has fallen as I think of the possibilities (were they a mating pair??), but I resolve to stand strong in my blessings, as I endure more insanely clean, sanitized days.  I do little more than clean and sanitize now, trying to keep us safe. To say this is an uncomfortable way to live--constantly wondering where the next creature is and are we going to get salmonella poisoning from them--is an understatement.  It makes me fall on my knees for all the poor mothers in third-world countries, who endure far worse.  I can take care of this problem, whereas they have generational poverty to look forward to.  I am reminded of Stephanie's words yesterday:

Thing is, there's one major difference between them and me. I can leave whenever I want to.

I can go back home to my developed nation, with its proper sanitation, indoor plumbing, hot water faucets and toilets that don't make me feel like I'm doing the 30 Day Shred.
Others don't have that luxury. Poverty is a generational curse. I can't tell you how many times already we've learned of families who still live in the same place where they were raised 20, 30, 40 years ago, or old men and women who have never left the slums and now care for their grandchildren in the same one-room squalor.

Poverty imprisons people in miry pits from which they cannot escape. Climbing your way out of a 100 foot dark, deep hole isn't really a viable option.

At least, not unless someone throws down a ladder for you to climb up. 

If you want to be that ladder and make a $38/month commitment, click here. If your finances won't allow it right now, can you forward these Compassion links to friends and relatives?

a gem from Ann

I found a gem from Ann Voskamp's blog last week. I included an excerpt below, but please read the rest of the parenting post, which includes a free printable.  She teaches how to approach children as you train them.  I just want to hug her and say yes, yes, yes!  This is so good!

Ann's words begin below:
______________________________________________

1. Heart Connect… only then Direct.

Instruction can only thrive in the soil of authentic relationship. Before offering instruction, consider how to touch the child gently. Think on how to frame all instructions in the context of a loving, affirming relationship.

If instruction bears tensions then check out the soil: perhaps the relationship needs fertilizing. If the relationship has been well cultivated and nourished, and instruction still yields resistance, perhaps offering more opportunities to practice receiving and implementing instruction may nourish the young shoot towards a joyful attitude.

Questions to self: Am I making eye contact? Am I touching? Have I nourished this relationship? Am I connecting before directing?

2. Love, what did I say?……
And will you obey?

Asking the child what was said allows the child to offer feedback to ensure they did indeed hear the instructions.

Then, does the child intend to do what was asked?

3. By what is inspected,
They’ll know what is expected

Our children need to hear it as much as the faithful servant needed to hear it: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Questions to Self: Am I bringing closure to an instruction by joining with a child to inspect the task? Am I being faithful to finishing that which I began: I gave the instruction, did I inspect?

a soul longing for wholeness

When you get together with your extended family, do you always leave in pain?  Are there bridges you've learned not to cross--words you leave unsaid?  Does your soul ache with a longing for wholeness?

Then this work of grace, this piece of poetry, is just for you.  Don't miss it.  The Lord has given Laura a powerful, poignantly beautiful gift with words.  It is short, so you do have time.

I'm speechless

Post ideas usually abound in my head.  Right now, however, I'm speechless.

These ladies are full of wise words. Won't you visit them?

Lady of Virtue wrote two amazing posts recently:
1.  Keep the Home Fires Burning
2.  Money Can't Save Us

Sally Clarkson wrote beautifully this week also:

1.  Filling Your Soul With Love and Grace Divine
2.  Parenting--It All Starts With Your View of God

Tonia from Study in Brown is writing a nice series:
1.  Order And Routine--Making Straight Paths for Peace - Part 1
2.  Order and Routine--Making Straight Paths for Peace - Part 2
3.  A Song Almost Heard - Tonia's adoption story, all about living the Gospel, is a must read. If you read nothing else, read this.

Tina from  The Jobe Journal, using her eight-year-old daughter's writing sample, teaches you how to incorporate ideas from The Institute for Excellence in Writing.  My next curriculum purchase will definitely be the Student Writing Intensive DVD Course, Level A (grades 3-5).

Amy's baby

Amy from Raising Arrows had her baby!  You wouldn't believe the size of this baby!  Mine ranged in weight from 5 pounds 9 ounces to 6 pounds 6 ounces.  And I thought my labors were painful!  I can't imagine.

Ann's 2nd post

Here is Ann's next Compassion post.  Some of the team traveled for nearly 24 hours, so they probably need our prayers for strength and renewal.  I'm sure exhaustion doesn't bode well for team cohesiveness.  This team varies widely in personalities, as I'm sure most ministry teams do.

Here is the link to the official Compassion Blog.  You can read the other team member posts--as well as Ann's--at that site all this week.

blessings and wonders

- My Paul, cheering at each and every firework.  The surrounding crowd enjoyed his enthusiasm as much as the fireworks themselves.

- My Paul, splashing in the waves at a lake beach, wearing a perpetual giggle.

- My anxiety-ridden Peter, beating a fear of the water and thoroughly enjoying himself in the lake.  He begs daily now to go back to the lake.

- My Mary, making her first sand castle.  She had such a good time building it with Auntie Lorrie and Daddy, that Auntie Lorrie took pity and bought some sand for our sandbox.  A huge summer blessing for our kids, but just plain sad for Mommy and Daddy, because we couldn't provide the sand ourselves.  Our pride is getting the best of us lately, I'm afraid.

- Auntie Lorrie ( my sister-in-law) and I are slowly becoming friends, rather than just relatives through marriage. We are so different that the first ten years of my eleven year marriage were kind of rocky, relational wise, between Lorrie and myself.  Never any fighting or anything--just typical in-law tension.  That is all gone, thank the Lord.

- James, the disabled bachelor I wrote about, had a very nice visit with our family and with Lorrie.  I'm sorry he had to go home to an empty house.  The kids really took to him, even though they hadn't seen him for two years.  At the end of the visit, on Tuesday morning, Mary said to me, "Mommy, I love James."  I suggested she go and tell him.  He was blessed!  The children wore him out, as usual, as well as Lorrie.  Both James and Lorrie always take a slow day at home to recover from their visits, telling us they just don't know how we do it day after day.  Grace of God, I tell them.

- I haven't heard any specifics yet, but my blogging buddy Jess probably had her baby around the 4th.  This baby is her fourth blessing.  She has a two, five, and eight year old at home.  Nothing prepares you for that.  Please pray for a smooth couple months with baby, with nursing, and with the older children.  Please also pray for help with meals, errands, childcare and housework.

- We're about done with our third Dr. Dolittle book.  Our county has no more of these stories available, but the librarian is searching all of Ohio for us.  Yeah!

- This post, for its reminder about what is really important.

- Our eleventh anniversary, celebrated with an Olive Garden lunch, thanks to Lorrie and James.

notes and tidbits

Did you notice Mommy Missionary's series of posts lately?  A pastor's wife and mom of five, she battled depression in recent months.  Her series of posts detail what God taught her in the midst of struggle.  

A Long Time Coming, Part One

A Long Time Coming, Part Two

A Long Time Coming, Part Three  (Details how her marriage suffered, and how God redeemed it.)

A Long Time Coming, Part Four

I especially liked this quote below, featured in her fourth post.  My husband is seriously discouraged right now, and I was so happy to read this today.  I will print it out and put in on the bathroom mirror for him, to see when he gets home in the wee hours tonight.

“The celebrated Scottish preacher, James Stewart, made a statement that is also challenging:

‘It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His Kingdom; and that He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them.’

That’s a thrilling discovery to make.  It transforms our mental attitude toward our circumstances.  Let’s pause long enough here to consider this principle in all seriousness.  Your humiliations, your struggles, your battles, your weaknesses, even your so-called “disqualifying” infirmities are precisely what make you effective.  I would go further and say they represent the stuff of greatness.  Once you are convinced of your own weakness and no longer trying to hide it, you embrace the power of Christ.” 

Paul, Charles Swindoll page 241

____________________________

My social studies and science planning is going smoother than anticipated (this week anyhow).

No hives for Paul this evening.

We have peppers and tomatoes already planted, and weather permitting, we'll do the rest of the planting this weekend.  Thunder and lightening abound lately--and mosquitoes, which are particularly abundant during humid weather.  They attack Paul and me viciously, while the others seem to largely escape the blood-thirsty rampage.

By far though, the worst mosquitoes I've experienced were in Yosemite Valley in early June, 2000.  What a hot, miserable bite fest, beautiful though it was!  Just a few hours later we were in the Yosemite mountains with snow on the ground and no mosquitoes in sight.  What a variance in scenery there!  A truly beautiful place.

That same trip, we camped at Mount Lassen in northern CA.  Beautiful, snow-capped volcano territory.  Breathtaking views.  My best hike ever occurred there, even though we got lost in the snow and feared we'd be spending the night with the bears (Or was it the mountain lions?  Can't remember now.  No, we didn't see any.  And yes, we made it back to camp.  And no, there was no wild love making on that hike.  It was beautiful for other reasons :)  ).

That was our first anniversary trip.  How carefree we were!  And how blessed and busy now, with our active brood.  When children come early in a marriage, you really have to hang on to those romance-rich memories.  It's a long season before similar ones can be made--especially if no family is around to take the reins for a couple days (or even for a couple hours).

Anyhow, have a nice weekend, friends!

McGuffey - wisdom from the past

I have enjoyed Large Family Mothering's posts on the antique McGuffey texts (and other antique resources).  One-room schoolhouse teaching was nothing like the methods used today.

- Most children didn't enter the one-room schoolhouse until they were ten.

- Play was valued for little ones.

- Teachers taught based on instinct, not by teacher's editions.  There were none.

Her posts are worth reading.  A third post is in the works.  I love this woman's blog!  She is a great thinker, IMHO.

Her first post - An Old Dog Learning New Tricks
Second post - The Places I Have Been

recommended read

What a wonderful reminder post from the Owlhaven blog, entitled  Homes of the Broken.

giving in order to get (John Piper)

The problem with giving in order to get, from the John Piper blog.  Did you see the post?  Very good!

how do you spend your time?

I found this thoughtful post about getting distracted by outside pursuits.

U.S. Census-worker training is complete.  Workers will now be knocking on your door if you haven't yet returned your Census form.  The statistics collected help decide Congressional seats.  States can lose seats if too many forms aren't turned in.

team of bloggers in Dominican Republic

A team of bloggers sponsored by World Vision will be in the Dominican Republic next week.  Here is a preview post.

Good Reads

Good reads:

Mean People, by Kristin Welsh of We Are That Family.

What Not to Say, by the author of Pursuing Titus  2.

Validation and Charlotte Mason, by the author of Large Family Mothering.

Autodidacting is an Educational Strategy, by the author of Large Family Mothering.

What To Do When You Want to Give Up And Stay in Bed, by Ann from Holy Experience

powerful story

Did you catch this powerful birth story link posted the other day on Pursing Titus 2?  Get ready to experience something beautiful.  Nothing too graphic displayed, and no one dies.  Just pure beauty.

fourteen months and poems to treasure

She's asleep now of course.  I so want to kiss those jellied cheeks.  I've been giving her plain bread for the longest time, and then it dawned on me that she might like something on her bread. Duh.  Now she eats more wholesome whole grains.  

She is fourteen months today.

She climbed the safety gate and fell off the top of it.

There is no relaxing.....ever.

A new forehead bruise appears every week.

Our main rooms are mostly devoid of decor.  Everything within her reach is gone, except for books.

I can't keep up with the re-shelving of books.  I now gather those she has dispersed and put them in a laundry basket--to deal with in my spare time. 

Now the basket is overflowing with books, and we saw her climb the "mountain" today.

She dumps tubs and baskets and uses them as stools.

If the boys or Daddy forget to close the bathroom door, she notices it first thing and runs in there, hoping to find the toilet open, or toilet paper within her reach.  I can't buy any toilet safety gadgets right now, so I lecture the boys in desperation.  Since she climbs the gate now, it's more imperative that they remember.

When she's in my arms and we're walking down the hall, she stretches out her hands, reaching for wall pictures.

I love every inch of her.  Every pore.  I don't even want her to grow up.  She's my biggest blessing--an unexpected, delightful gift from God.

But she's. driving. me. CRAZY!

Now she's pulling it.  Next she'll turn it on its side and use it to stand on.  All wobbly and proud atop it, she displays no fear.

Our side yard.  No foot steps yet.  Fresh snow reminds me of new beginnings.  We ate our breakfast in wonder, looking out this window.  What you can't see is the way the early sun shown on this blanket, making it glisten.  Breathtaking.

Guess what my boys said when they saw these beans?  "She bought us craft supplies!"  Uh, no.  The only dried beans I usually buy are navy beans and legumes.  Peter was excited about the prospect of new recipes! That boy is destined to be a chef.  Cooking and baking are cures for any behavior problem he throws our way.  Just keep that boy busy!  Give him something to chop, something to mix, something to add spices to....whatever.  He lives for it!  

Over the weekend I ran across a post on Apples of Gold about a delightful poetry book, The Path to Home, by Edgar Guest (how do you underline in new blogger editor?).  It happens to be out of print, but the poems can be found on this website.  Tear jerker mom poems, to be sure.  Get the kleenex.  Thank you to Holly, for posting about this gem of a book!

Below you'll find one that fits my post today.


THE TOY-STREWN HOME--Edgar Guest
Give me the house where the toys are strewn,
Where the dolls are asleep in the chairs,
Where the building blocks and the toy balloon
And the soldiers guard the stairs.
Let me step in a house where the tiny cart
With the horses rules the floor,
And rest comes into my weary heart,
For I am at home once more.
Give me the house with the toys about,
With the battered old train of cars,
The box of paints and the books left out,
And the ship with her broken spars.
Let me step in a house at the close of day
That is littered with children’s toys,
And dwell once more in the haunts of play,
With the echoes of by-gone noise.
Give me the house where the toys are seen,
The house where the children romp,
And I’ll happier be than man has been
‘Neath the gilded dome of pomp.
Let me see the litter of bright-eyed play
Strewn over the parlor floor,
And the joys I knew in a far-off day
Will gladden my heart once more.
Whoever has lived in a toy-strewn home.
Though feeble he be and gray,
Will yearn, no matter how far he roam,
For the glorious disarray
Of the little home with its littered floor
That was his in the by-gone days ;
And his heart will throb as it throbbed before,
When he rests where a baby plays.

thank you

Thank you so much for the potty-training advice!  All your comments helped me.

And Liz, I was so happy to hear from you!  It's been awhile.  Missed you.  We took Peter off the Strattera, and have no other options for medication.  Treating an ADHD/anxiety combo remains problematic in the medical world, and here at home, too.  Peter will start seeing a psychiatrist in February, who can hopefully give us tips on managing the more difficult, defiant ADHD behaviors.

I forgot to add a link to my earlier post.  It's about mothering children versus managing them.  Very thought provoking.  Not at all related to potty-training or ADHD.  Just something I wanted to share.

Have a great weekend!  Lord bless you!