This & That before we go

No, we are NOT potty training yet.
Jeremiah and Nathaniel found the training potty in a pile of stuff. Jeremiah decided it needed to be in the bathroom so that he could teach Nathaniel. I was standing in the hall laughing so hard as I listened to him boss Nathaniel around. This was the finished product. :-)
Nathaniel has been talking about "pee pee in the potty" because he watches Jeremiah do it. However, on the few occasions that I have actually gone through the process of removing the diaper and sitting him on the potty he looks at me like, "ok, now what?" I figure if the kid can't take off his own pants yet there is no way we are starting potty training.
Nathaniel seems to have a fertile imagination. He loves his play doctor kit (even before "the incident") and spends most of the day walking around with the stethoscope around his neck. He has also developed a love for hats that is directly inherited from his father. Aaron has a collection of hats of all sorts and when Nathaniel found it he promptly claimed this same hat that was Aaron's favorite as a teenager. :-)

Jeremiah has been working on some paintings to give as gifts for some people we are going to see soon! He literally spent about 4 hours on Monday morning painting.
I am in the midst of packing and organizing for our vacation. We leave tomorrow morning to meet my parents in Roanoke, Virginia (half way point) and then on Friday we take the rest of the trip to the house we are renting in the Pocono's. Aaron will join us in a week. I have not had the experience yet of driving that long with the boys by myself. So we shall see how tomorrow goes. Some friends are letting us borrow their Volvo station wagon (my dream car! hee hee) since the a/c in our car is broken. This is such a blessing since taking the Saturn would have meant some serious downsizing in the luggage department.
I am ready to be on the way! I have been jealously watching from afar as the family celebrated Will & Mariana's graduation from law school, had a special birthday surprise for Ramona, and had a house warming shower for Ben & Ramona. I am ready to be with them!
We do not have a laptop so I will be computer-less until we get back. I am actually looking forward to disconnecting for a while. But be sure I will have lots of pictures to share when we return!

House or Home?

The kitchen is situated smack dab in the middle of the house. It connects from the "turtle room" to the dining room and the office/master bedroom. It is very spacious and I have been having fun actually having enough cabinet space for all my appliances and dishes. It will eventually need some updating but it is clean and well cared for. The little cut out window lets me keep an eye on the boys while they are playing in the sunroom and gives me a gorgeous view of the back yard while I work.

The living room.

This room is long and narrow so we are going to have to experiment with furniture placement. The dining room is connected to this room. (But I didn't take a picture of it because right now it is just a room with a table and chairs...)

The "master bedroom."

Is connected to a small office area and doesn't have any walls right now. But I decided to claim it as the master bedroom because 1) it has a separate entry to the back deck and 2) it has a connected bathroom! We are going to buy wardrobes from IKEA (there is no closet) and hang a curtain to create a door. So far though I don't mind the open space, it lets so much light through and disciplines me to make my bed every morning. :-)

The guest bedroom.

I am so excited that we have a room that is only for guests! I can't wait to straighten it up and make it an inviting place for our visitors to stay. Jeremiah has already started calling this "oma & opa's room" but other guests are more than welcome. smile. Right now it is full of extra boxes and stuff to sort through that we can't hardly walk in there but we will get to that this summer. This room will also have an area for my stamping and sewing supplies. Yeah!

There is a small room off of the carport entry that we call the "turtle room" simply because the previous owner (Ms. Pat) kept her collection of turtles in here. Right now it is a great room for Jeremiah's easel as well as a mud room. All of our shoes, coats, bags, and strollers are stored nicely here and out of our regular living area. This will eventually evolve into the school room when the boys are old enough for "formal" homeschooling.

Connected to the "turtle room" is the sunroom. This room is large, sunny and connects to the back yard. Ms. Pat was so kind and left us the wicker furniture. This has become the play room. The boys have toys and books out here so that they can play and make a mess that I don't stress over.

There is that weird moment in the process of moving where the initial hectic flurry of getting everything simply into the house is over, the basic necessities of everyday life are put away ,and the work of transforming the place from a house into a home must begin. That is where we are stuck. I am leaving with the boys for vacation in Pennsylvania next week and we have decided to put off all painting and other projects until we return. So for the time being we are enjoying living in the new house but haven't really had the opportunity to put our stamp on it and make it truly our home.

So much to tell!

This is a HUGE post! Hang in there! :-)

We got everything moved over to the new house this past weekend! Aaron took Friday off of work and we had lots of help on Saturday so everything really went very smoothly. The house is of course in a subdued state of chaos with boxes everywhere and us not able to find simple things like the dust pan. But already we are loving the extra room and space to spread out. The boys room is the only room that is complete. With the fresh paint on the walls and room for all their toys it is a spacious yet cozy place for them to hang out.

In the process of looking through old boxes I found a stuffed Goofy that belonged to me as a child. Nathaniel was so excited. So now his friend is Goofy and Jeremiah has Bob.

We have been enjoying our yard and back deck area. The weather has been so cool that we have been able to have all our windows open and spend most of the day outside. This is not normal for our area. Usually by the end of April I am ready to turn on the AC and have to make myself wait until May. So, no complaints from us! It is such a blessing to have a back yard that is fenced in and so well maintained. I love to sit on the deck and sip coffee while I watch the boys run around and explore. Yesterday we had a picnic lunch in the gazebo and were enthralled by a bright red cardinal flitting around our bushes and bathing in the bird bath. Of course, there is also raking and weeding to do. :-)

Nathaniel after the stitches in his lip were done.

Monday morning started out great! I was getting a lot done and the boys were being so well behaved. The day was finally warming up so I decided that we should go outside and do some work on the deck and in the yard. Somehow in a split second Nathaniel managed to ride his truck down the steps of the deck and landed face first on the concrete patio resulting in 2 large splits in the middle of his bottom lip. I grabbed the boys and headed to the ER, trying to keep my cool. Stitches were definitely needed but Nathaniel was just not giving in to the sleeping medicine. So he had to be stitched up while he was awake with 2 nurses physically restraining him. There are no words to describe how I felt as I stood next to him while he was screaming and crying saying "mama! stop! no!" over and over again while the doctor was stitching him. I just stood next to his bed singing, crying and praying. As the doctor was leaving the room Nathaniel (who was happy to be sitting up again) calmly said in his sweet voice, "Bye doc-er. Tank U!" That sent me into fresh waves of tears. Really, I was a total baby.
Thankfully Nathaniel seems completely fine now. He has slept well and seems to be his normal happy and adventurous self. His lip still looks swollen and the stitches are still visible but he doesn't seem bothered by it in the slightest.

On Tuesday my grand parents stopped by to visit with us on their way through the area. It was a perfect spring day and we spent the afternoon sitting in the gazebo playing games and chatting. It was wonderful!

We are hoping to spend the next few days relaxing, unpacking and just spending time together. I leave next week with the boys to meet my parents in Virginia and then head all together to a cabin the Pocono'c for a few weeks. Aaron will join us when he is finished school for the year.

Obedience

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. -Ephesians 6:1

Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 12:28

The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. -Psalm 30:17

And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. -Ezekiel 36:27

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. -John 3:36

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. -Acts 5:32

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. -1 John 5:2

We have really hit some challenging behavior with Jeremiah. It seems I spend the whole day correcting disrespectful and negative behavior. That first moment when my sweet little boy ran to his room, slammed his door, and yelled "JUST BE QUIET!" hit me like a ton of bricks. The knowledge of the sin in my child's heart caused me to sit on the floor and cry.

Aaron and I are not very strict parents in the traditional way. We think more about correcting the underlying emotions and reasons for behavior rather than just focusing on good outward behavior. This is not always easy since concepts of sin, emotions and motivations are a bit of a challenge to a 4 year old mind. But we believe it is worth the investment.

Recently, in an attempt to converse with Jeremiah about why we obey (instead of the flippant, "just be a good boy") I decided to start looking up Bible verses about obedience. Jeremiah has a terrific memory so I thought that memorizing some scripture together would help us both. A simple search of the word obey on ESV online brought up 169 verses! Wow. God is really serious about this obedience stuff. When people in the Old Testament did not obey what God told them really bad things happened. In the New Testament there is an obvious link between belief in Christ and obedience to him and the Holy Spirit. (And I didn't even post any of the verses about wives obeying their husbands.....)

Thinking about obedience is not fun. My sinful and rebellious heart wants to do things my way. My lazyness doesn't even want to consider the discipline and work involved in obeying. The influence of the culture around me discourages moral absolutes and sees obedience as an antiquated tradition. Yet the Bible is clear.

In my search for getting obedience from my child I have been challenged at the lack of obedience in my own life. It seems we have a lot to learn together.

Randomness

I have been really bad about taking pictures these past few days. I find it hard to do in the midst of packing, keeping 2 boys out of trouble, and the normal every day accomplishments of feeding and clothing said boys. But here are a few to catch you up.

I once read a parenting book that talked about how bad it was to "bribe" your kids. Well, I now wonder if that person was really a parent. I have resorted to bribery in the past few days just so that we can cope and get things done. We have a stash of lollipops (I save the ones the lady at the bank gives us) that is perfect for "rewarding good behavior."

Jeremiah really really wanted his new room to be painted green. He picked out a nice green that we originally liked, but once we saw a larger paint chip realized it was a bit too bright. So we settled on a more natural mossy green that is calm and soothing. The boys room was painted on Saturday and Jeremiah was excited to get to help out. Of course, on Monday night he somehow got into the room, picked up a roller with white paint on it and did a little painting of his own....good thing the green paint was already dry and Aaron was able to quickly wash the white paint off.

We have finally found something that will keep Nathaniel occupied for more than 5 minutes at a time! Legos! We had a large box of Duplos hiding in the closet that Jeremiah never really played with. In the process of cleaning and packing the box made it out into the boys room. Nathaniel will sit quietly for up to half and hour (!) making towers and other creations. He has done this at least once a day for the past 5 days. I am amazed! This is the kid who has shown disdain for all the toys we have in our house. I am also now searching yard sales and the internet for more. :-) He also likes to walk around all day with a stethascope around his neck. Funny.

Going to be a long week

I am tired this Monday morning. Last week was a whirlwind of different events, changes to our schedule and beginning work on the new house. By last night the boys were in the midst of major emotional meltdowns and Nathaniel had a fever. To top it all off 6 of the 8 koi in our pond at the new house died over the weekend because we didn't run one of the pumps right.
I was actually happy to awake to a cool drizzly morning and see that rain is in the forecast for the rest of the day. I will use it as my excuse to wait until Aaron gets home to move more stuff over to the house. In the mean time I think that the boys and I have earned a day of rest. I know they have earned a day of my undivided attention.

The pond

It was a busy day. But at the end of the day of running errands and coordinating a wedding we were able to turn the key to our new house and enjoy! We got some fast food and had a picnic in our sunroom while the boys ran around and got acquainted with their new house. They eagerly "helped" take down all the old, dusty curtains and carry them outside. We enjoyed poking around the house, peeking in closets, checking out all the cabinets in the kitchen, imagining where the furniture was going to go. The yard of course was also a place of great exploration. We fed the 8 gigantic koi in the pond. The boys exclaiming loudly as the fish came to the surface with their big mouths open to gulp down the food. We poked around the beautiful flower beds wondering what surprise blooms were in store. We examined the 2 outbuildings and imagined where the bamboo fencing around the pond is going to go.
Ms. Pat (the previous owner) left us a note telling us that this home had been filled with love and she was greatful to know that we would be raising our boys there. I felt priviledged to have met her and known a bit of who she was so that we feel an even deeper connection to the house as a real home.
I had brought my camera anticipating taking some fun pictures. But my batteries ran out....
However, these 2 pictures give you an idea of the view I have from my new back patio. Pretty good huh? :-)

More thoughts from Jeremiah

We were supposed to be closing on our house yesterday, but it got pushed back to Thursday. So instead I decided to load up the boys on what was scheduled to be the one sunny day of the week and run a bunch of errands in anticipation of "the big move." We pondered over paint colors and fencing at Lowe's. We picked out art supplies for some special gifts at Hobby Lobby. We tried to find mama some summer clothes at Target (clothes shopping for myself with 2 little boys in tow was not a good idea). And because the boys did so great on this expedition we finished off with lunch and play at Chik-fil-A which always excites the boys because they get to pick out their very own helium filled ballon to take home.
We were driving home listening to the Veggie Tales worship CD and Jeremiah always gets excited when Bob the Tomato quotes a verse from Jeremiah. "Mama! Mama! Bob said my name!"
I decided to take the opportunity to tell Jeremiah abit about how he got his name.
"Bob said your name because mama and papa named you after a man in the Bible who told other people about God. We hope that you will grow up to be a man like the prophet Jeremiah and always want to serve God and share His Word with other people."
Jeremiah replied, "Ok. I also want to grow up to be big like papa. Then I can tell Nathaniel what to do."

Where babies come from....

We have been having some really interesting conversations with Jeremiah recently. There has been lots of baby talk in our house. No, we are not having another baby. Aunt Cherise is now visibly pregnant and baby girl cousin is now known as Lily. Jeremiah is excited about having a cousin. Nathaniel has no clue what the heck is going on and looks at me like I have lost my mind when I show him how to touch aunt Cherise's belly and talk to cousin Lily.
I often tell the boys how thankful I am that God gave them to me, just like God is giving Lily to Chad & Cherise. This morning while we were snuggling on the couch Jeremiah calmly explained this to me completely out of the blue:
"Mama, God gave me to you. I think you were on the road or maybe on the driveway. And God just put me down in a box and I got on my tricycle and there I was!"
Not quite the way it works kiddo. :-)

Truth

It's a rainy, cool day. Before kids I would have stayed in bed, read a favorite book and taken a nap. But, since I have kids who don't stay in bed longer than 6:45 a.m. those things are no longer an option.
Don't get me wrong, I truly and deeply love my kids. But I must be honest and say that there are some days when I just want to be selfish and do what I want to do. So they watched TV this morning while I got the coffee going and spent an hour poking around the internet.
I am in a funk.
I have been for a few days.
I realized this morning that I usually get into a funk when I let life get too busy and forget to keep the truths of scripture in the front of my mind. I let the messages from the world around me seep in and take over what I know to be true. "You have to look like this to be beautiful." "You come first." "There is no right and wrong." "Your material possessions define you." "You deserve the things you lust after." Today being a prime example. If I was keeping the gospel foremost in my mind then waking up to care for my family should be a joy, not a trial. I would have remembered that "Love suffers long...does not seek it's own...".
I have a box that a college roommate gave me. When I read a verse that really strikes me I write it on a 3x5 card and put it in the box. Then when I have a day like today I just grab the box and read through a handful of the verses that I have put in there. As always with God's Word I always get what I need from the verses I pull out.
Today's verse:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eye.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
The are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
- Psalm 19:7-11
What a perfect reminder for me today!

Shortcuts

Warning: This is completely rambling and random. I vomited it out in an attempt to calm myself down. Proceed with caution and lack of judgment please. :-)

I woke up this morning with a mild sense of panic and unease. The reason for this is simple: the month of May is going to be crazy busy for us. Along with the regular busy-ness of May (weddings, graduations, Mother's Day etc.) we are completing loan documents, moving, and preparing to go on vacation. I also made the mistake of committing to helping with a communal garden.
I have been trying so hard the past few months to be more organized and scheduled. I have done well with budgeting and keeping our grocery costs low. I have been making a lot of home made food in order to be more healthy. I have been trying to involve the kids in more creative play and activities. But honestly, all of that does take time, energy, and planning.
I realized this morning that in order to make it through the next few weeks we are just going to have to take some shortcuts.
- Nathaniel gets to keep his "ba" (pacifier). There is no way I am going to try and wean him off that thing with all of this going on. He is completely attached to it and even comes and asks me for it holding up his hands and saying in a pitiful voice, "need ba!"
- We have been doing good at scaling back the TV watching. Until this morning when I had to email a scanned 30+ page document - one.page.at.a.time. The boys sat in front of PBS kids for a good hour and a half. They seem ok. It may be they put in some more than usual hours in front on the 1 eyed babysitter in the next few weeks.
- Our cupboards are bare. I have not had a spare minute to do my usual online sales search or menu plan. (Of course I could be doing that instead of blogging!) The only time I see being able to go to the store is tonight after the boys are in bed. So what to have for dinner? I see a few extra nights of $5.00 pizza in our future the next few weeks. I think that we will also be having more packaged snacks and meals.
- Cleanliness. Oh my. You should see the state of our house. Packing with 2 curious boys is a lesson in patience. As soon as I pack a box it gets unpacked by a curious boy who wants to know what is inside and wants to play in the box. As I try and get the extra stuff done I am neglecting making beds, folding laundry (just pull it out of the basket of clean clothes!), and dusting. I figure over the next few weeks I am doing good to keep the dishes washed and laundry done.

The one area that we cannot short cut is that of patience and grace. Aaron and I have promised to treat each other (and the boys) with extra measures of both in these next few weeks. Things are going to be crazy. Things are not going to get done the way we are used to. But if we can reach the end of the month having loved each other well then all will be fine, despite the extra TV and food with partially hydrogenated oils. :-)

Loving the earth!

Yesterday after a gigantic hailstorm Jeremiah got to go outside and try out his new boots in water. Something about watching my little boys splashing around in water and making new discoveries makes me want to take care of this earth we live in.

Laundry excitement

Some days I wonder at the person I have become.... I am now a cloth diapering, veggie growing, clothesline drying, bargain hunting, probably homeschooling mother. Don't get me wrong, none of those things are bad. I just didn't think they would ever be me.
I have been waiting for months for my bulk supply of store bought laundry detergent to run out so that I could start making my own. Seriously, I was so excited about this I could hardly stand the wait! Yesterday was finally the day.
I mixed 1 cup Borax, 1 cup washing soda, and 1 grated bar of Dr. Bronner's pure castille soap.
That's it!
Here is why I am excited.
1. This is environmentally friendly. All of the ingredients biodegrade in water and so no chemicals are being dispersed into our rivers and streams. Dr. Bronner's soap is made with no animal tallow. I think it is important to care for our earth so I had been spending lots of money on biodegradable detergents (mostly Method products) which leads me to:
2. This is cheap! Each boxed ingredient was about $3.00 as was the soap (I think, my sister in law bought it for me and I still haven't paid her back). Since I only use 1 Tablespoon of the mixture for 1 load of laundry this should last for a long time! On one blog I read the financial break down of this mixture was less than 10 cents per load!
3. It's easy! Really. Just like the cloth diapers ended up being this is a cinch. The most work I had to do was grate up a bar of soap. Even I can handle that.

Last night I actually had fun doing a few loads of laundry to try this stuff out. It is crazy the things that get me excited now a days. My teenage self would cringe.... Smile.... Now I really want to learn to sew....

Meet Bob

Aunt Moni and Jeremiah outside the Build-A-Bear Workshop after getting "Bob."

Of all the stuffed animals to choose from Jeremiah chose a turtle. He named him "Bob."

Jeremiah and Aunt Moni make out Bob's birth certificate.

Jeremiah proudly shows off Bob & his birth certificate. Bob is now Jeremiah's constant companion and Jeremiah is often heard exclaiming, "I love Bob!"

No pictures but good memories

One time when we were visiting my parents Oma took Jeremiah to the kinderboerderij. When they returned and they were telling me of their adventures I asked my mom if she had taken any pictures. She replied by saying that she thought about taking the camera but decided that she just wanted to enjoy the time with Jeremiah and not worry about taking pictures, so she didn't. I have often thought about that. It is true that sometimes when we are doing something with the boys I get so distracted by trying to get good pictures to "capture the memories" that I forget to just sit make and make the memories. Sometimes I am so busy snapping away with the camera that I forget to be present and active in the moment with my kids. I forget to interact with them and enjoy them and be more than just the person behind the camera.
Yesterday I made a conscious decision to not bring the camera with me on our outings and just imprint the memories in my head. So here is what I would have taken pictures of if I had my camera:
- Nathaniel chasing excitedly after the chickens in my friend's yard.
- Jeremiah clinging to my leg afraid of the chickens in my friend's yard.
- Nathaniel & Jeremiah digging happily in the dirt helping us plant corn seed.
- Extremely dirty knees and hands!
- My friend Faith on her big red tractor plowing up the ground for our communal garden.
- Jeremiah and Nathaniel in the soft evening light squating by the fish pond in our new yard.
- Jeremiah running around his new back yard watering the plants.
- Jeremiah standing in the middle of his new room looking around with excitement and a little bit of confusion.
- Miss Pat's kind look and genuine excitement at knowing that we are going to care for the home she has cared for.

Random Stuff...

These boys love their uncle Chad & aunt Cherise! Well, they love all their uncles and aunts, they just get the added bonus of being able to see Chad & Cherise more often. Nathaniel has an extra special liking for uncle Chad and insists on being close to him when he is around. Last Sunday in church he demanded loudly that uncle Chad hold him so half way through singing I gave in and walked him the 3 rows forward to where Chad was sitting.
It was made known last week that the expected baby is a GIRL! I am so excited that Jeremiah & Nathaniel will have a little girl around to love on and champion. And of course I am more than thrilled to finally have an excuse to buy little girl clothes. hee hee

This is how much Jeremiah loves his books.
I used to fall asleep reading after lights out when I was a little girl....

Jeremiah has decided to help Nathaniel as he demands more independence. The other day he was helping Nathaniel get around the house (as if the kid hasn't been walking for a year now). Nathaniel thought it was hilarious. As for independence: Nathaniel's favorite new phrase is a stubborn, "oo it SELF!" The days of quickly plopping him in his seat at the table, brushing his teeth for him, or getting him in and out of the car seat are over. This is the stage of development where I sorely lack patience and have to constantly remind myself that while I could do things quicker and easier he does need to learn himself.

Aaron is back at work after a wonderful spring break. We all miss having him home during the day but now know how great our summer is going to be!

He is risen indeed!

At Highlands we have a tradition of going to Mrs. Linda's house for Easter lunch and then smashing confetti filled eggs (casacrones) on each others heads. This year it was 100 dozen eggs. The boys loved it! Nathaniel walked around to everyone he saw saying, "smash, smash, smash!" He did not like it however when the egg actually broke and he had to find another one. Jeremiah had a blast chasing around with all the kids. It was interesting to watch him follow 2 bigger boys in particular, wanting to play with them but being rebuffed as they constantly ran away from him..... The trials and heartbreak of learning social skills....
Easter is one of my favorite "holidays" yet this year the season of Lent has flown by with very little notice from me. I have let myself get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our lives and have not been disciplined in taking time to reflect on the suffering and resurrection of my Savior. And yet the power of the knowledge that Christ truly is risen filled my heart with joy this morning!