honeymoon is over

The time has come.  

Other than being redirected, baby sister hasn't experienced any discipline.  Today she turned seventeen months.  Now, she looks me in the eye, smiles, and defies.  Again.  And again--smiling ever so coyly.  

She definitely understands directions.  She's just testing the disciplinary waters.

Hand taps have begun.  The siblings are sad for their baby sister, but their own common sense tells them that Momma is right.

Their sweet little hearts are merciful, however.  After staying close (tomato staking--from Raising Godly Tomatoes) and tapping Beth's hand three separate times for standing on the window ledge (it's equal to her height), I had to leave the room briefly to shuffle laundry.  I called to Mary, asking her if Beth was at it again.

First she said yes.  Then Mary changed her mind.  "No, she's being good Momma!"

I peeked around the corner to the playroom to make sure.  Beth was back up there.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth, Mary?"

"I'm sorrrrrrry.  I didn't want Beth to get a slap."  

I should have known better.  Of course she wasn't going to tattle on baby sister.  

Who would do such a thing?

I'll have to bring the baby into the bathroom with me now for my potty breaks.  No one around here can be trusted to keep her safe.  

I might be in trouble with little Miss Beth!  What a handful!

There are bees out there, Momma.

Oh, these sugar and spice girls!  What a blessing to have them in my midst!

I like this April 23rd entry in My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers.

"We are God's fellow workers..."

1Corinthian 3:9

Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him.  A great number of Christian workers worship their work.  The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God.  This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one.  A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work.  He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit.  Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated.  There is no freedom and no delight in life at all.  His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God's blessing cannot rest on him.

But the opposite case is equally true--once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone.  There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work.  The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him.  The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone.  But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing--to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.

AMAZING LOVE

Good worshipful Saturday to you!  We praised God with this before breakfast.

about their futures

Do you know of Marlboro Man from The Pioneer Woman blog?  Come on now!  You know you think he's cute!

FYI, My husband has just as nice a hiney, but I'm not funny enough or brave enough to post it as a permanent fixture on my blog.  Good grief!

Yeah.  I know.  That's why she's famous and I'm not.

Although, I do recall husband telling me that I can write anything I want on my blog.  He's got nothing to hide.  That's a direct quote.  He never reads blogs by the way--even this one.  He can't be bothered.

Anyhow, I was clicking around on the Compassion International blog and saw that Marlboro Man went as a sponsored blogger to the Dominican Republic in 2008.  Ree, his wife, was the one invited, but the family decided to ask if her husband could go--with their two daughters--instead.  Maybe Ree still had an infant at home?

I wanted to ask you to read one of his posts from the trip.  It highlights something I've learned through our underemployment journey here in the States.

Faith is everything.

Discounting it in our childrearing will prove costly.  We can't crowd it out with soccer, enrichment classes, playdates, gym time, etc.

Again I say.....faith is everything!  Money does matter, but sometimes a more rugged faith emerges in its absence.  Riches are in the heart, not the bank.  It is very parental to worry about how our children will support themselves one day.  But spiritual survival?  Are we giving that more time and energy?

We need to intentionally spend time together as a family to raise spiritually strong children--praying together, praising our Lord together, confessing our sins together, seeking God's will together, reading God's word together.


Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

What if they (our grown children) lose a spouse to cancer, or a child to a car accident in the driveway?  What if their entire family perishes in a car accident, leaving them alone?  What if they are asked by God to raise a severely disabled child?  What if they suffer from infertility, or have a miscarriage, or experience a stillbirth, or SIDS?  What if they lose everything in a midwestern tornado?   Or a California fire?  Or a Gulf Coast hurricane?  Or their house in a recession?  What if they fall and suffer some brain damage--memory loss, speech impairment?

The only thing we can be certain of about their futures is this:

They will know pain.

We have to raise our children to flourish spiritually, first and foremost.  And then financially and otherwise.  The next time a great opportunity arises that takes away family time (even if it's a church function), we need to remember our core value.

Faith

Again, here is that post, A Tale of Two Houses.  Read it to remember why faith is everything.

post script on belly issue

Post Script for previous post:

I forgot to mention an important tidbit about the stomach muscles involved in my post below.  Draw in your belly button toward your spine.  The muscles you needed to do that?  It is those that need strengthening, in order to flatten your belly and shape your waist. One article I found indicated that to make a difference, one has to do that sucking in motion in 5 sets of one hundred repetitions--per day!  Plus, we can't keep getting out of bed improperly!  Roll to the side, and then get up and out of bed--like you did during pregnancy.  Get in the same way.

I hope all this doesn't depress you!  It does depress me, but at least I know I can improve my situation over time.

My babies are well worth this problem, and worse things, of course. At least I can make it to the potty without leaking.  I count myself fortunate, when I read articles about that!

By the way, sucking in the belly button also works your pelvic-floor muscles, which help with urinary inconstancy.

Does your tummy look like mine?

This spring has me totally exasperated with my wardrobe!

Okay.......that's not quite right.

A more accurate way of putting it?  This spring I'm exasperated with my stomach!  Oh, the bother!  Even though my post-baby weight is down to 110 pounds, my stomach looks three to four months pregnant at the end of every day.  Why, 16 months post-natal, would I experience this?

After baby number two, my abdominal muscles separated--a condition called diastasis recti.  I first saw this term on a few blogs this year, but I didn't pay enough attention to it.  When it became obvious that clothes weren't going to hide my hard, round, bubble belly, I started researching.

If you've had more than two babies, or if your stomach muscles were weak before you got pregnant, you probably have this condition to some extent.  If you lie down flat and lift your head up, as if to do a crunch, can you feel a vertical muscle separation (greater than two finger widths)?  Or does a bit of your tummy pop up, in a vertical line? If so, you have this.  The good news?  Most cases can be corrected without surgery.

I'm actually less happy with my stomach now than I was a year ago.  I've made it worse, people!  Yes, each time I get out of bed using my stomach muscles in a way that causes them to push out, I make the abdominal muscle separation worse.  Over time, from getting in and out of bed improperly, and because I've ignorantly done some sessions of regular crunches, my stomach is less flat!

I knew something had to change when I noticed a couple people peeking down at my stomach recently.  Oh, the embarrassment!  My mind wandered to my sixties.  Would I have a significant bulge by then (like a five or six months-pregnant bubble), the way older women often do?  The answer is yes.....if I don't do something about this!  Unfortunately, in addition to embarrassment, back pain will eventually appear, as a result of the worsening separation.

I don't know about you, but I find it shocking that OB-GYN's seem to know nothing about this, or if they do know, they don't think it important enough to address.  They don't even bother giving a caveat about regular abdominal exercises!  Grrr!

Read a more technical explanation, and learn the proper exercises needed to correct it, here and here and here, or search using the term "diastasis recti".