Hard questions!

I love Saturday mornings with the girls with nowhere to go because of the conversations we have that come from just hanging out together, relaxed and comfortable.  This morning was no different, except the line of conversation took an interesting turn- it became about heaven.  Kaley has talked a few times of heaven and asked questions as most kids would do.  We talked a lot about it when my grandma passed away but it has come up recently and today she was playing with her toys and asked if she could bring her toys to heaven with her.  Then she asked if she could bring her beloved woof woof and blankie with her as well.  She was visibly upset and very worried about it.  I tried as best I could to explain what heaven was and how happy a place it was, but I could not bring myself to tell her that she couldn't bring anything with her. 

I admit that I was torn.  I was torn between wanting to protect her heart from the sadness that would come if she knew she couldn't bring those things that she loves the most heaven with her, yet at the same time, I didn't want to be untruthful with what I know about heaven and paint a picture that she would later realize is not the truth. 

Kaley is at a precious place on her faith journey.  She has been talking more about Jesus living in her heart and asking questions about prayer, Jesus, the Bible and of course heaven.  I want her to ask questions about all of these things as she grows in her faith as this is a critical part of her journey.  It is just difficult to know how much information to give a four year old. 

In the end, we prayed together and asked God to give her heart an understanding about heaven that she can grasp and to give her a sense of comfort and peace.  In the meantime, I will seek the advice of those mamas and dads who have tread this course before and of course pray for God's wisdom. 

Why, oh why, do these conversations come up when the pastor is not here?  

One Big Science Project, Fingers Crossed

I was determined this year to make our garden work.  Last year's garden was a colossal failure.  I think we got enough lettuce for one dinner and maybe 10 tomatoes if we were lucky.  I had read a book a couple of years ago, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, that presented a successful no-fail method and was excited to try it.  Since we got our backyard complete this summer, I knew that I had to dive into this project and see if it could actually work.  And, I'm happy to say that it has so far! Check out our garden...

Okay, so these were labeled "winter squash" bush type at the nursery.   

I'll believe it when I see it, because they look an awful lot like tomatoes:-)

Eggplant

 

Zucchini

Green peppers

Tomatoes

Red Onion

celery

Kale

Our first harvest of the season!

I'm being overly optimistic that all of the plants will grow and actually produce vegetables this year and am really pleased with the results so far.  The best part is that I have had to only pull about 5 weeds the entire summer.  So easy:-)

 

Lessons from Sunday School

We had a conversation on the way home from church this morning about what Kaley learned in Sunday School. I wish sometimes that I could have a tape recorder built into the car because we have some of the best conversations and I would love to have a recording what Kaley comes up with. I was fortunate today to get one of our conversations on video when we got home. This is a video of what Kaley learned in Sunday School. She is quite the little girl!

Woodworking with Daddy

Mark has really enjoyed his hobby of woodworking and has become very good at it. On Wednesday nights, he and Kaley have a "daddy date" night where they go do something special together. Mark had found plans for a bubble gum dispenser and decided that it was something that he and Kaley were going to make together for their daddy date. Kaley loved it!!! She enjoys being able to make things with her hands and learning new things, so it was a win-win for her. Plus, like any child, the garage is like a playground with all sorts of tools and gadgets just waiting to be explored, and Kaley has always been fascinated with everything in the garage.

Mark got all of the pieces cut and ready to go and had Kaley do some special jobs like sanding and gluing and then of course the painting! She had a great time making the bubble gum dispenser and she is proud to tell whoever is listening that she and her daddy made it. Can't get any better than that!

A First Time for Everything

These past two weeks have been filled with new experiences for our girls, mostly good and one not so good.

Kaley received dancing lessons, an outfit and ballet shoes for Christmas and has been really excited to try them out. Our little dancing queen started her first dance lessons last week and she has been having a great time. Kaley and her two friends are doing the class together with about 8 other girls and they are so cute! She came home today and told us all about the new game that she learned and showed us all about it. It is so fun to see her having fun with the other girls and doing something that she really enjoys.




For Chloe, her Christmas present was swimming lessons! She loves being in the water and playing around, so it was a good time to start them. I was the most nervous about her going under the water for the first time, but she has a great teacher and she was a great help. Unfortunately, Chloe didn't quite think it was fun at all going under water and let us know under no uncertain terms that she did not want to do *that* again. She did great floating on her back, kicking her legs, and she really liked it when she could jump off the side of the pool. Hopefully next week will be all smiles and giggles and no tears!


The last new thing that happened this week was the girls going to daycare. They officially start next week, for two days each week, but Monday was a practice day and it couldn't have been more of an opposite experience for the girls. Kaley was excited to go back and see all of her friends again and had a great day! Chloe on the other hand, had a bit of a harder time. To put it mildly, she was MAD, all day and was not a happy camper. Chloe doesn't deal well with change, as most 18 months old don't, but it takes a little longer for Chloe to get used to new places and new people. We love the daycare they are in and are excited to see what they learn and how they grow in the next couple of months.

Lots of changes for a new year and this is just January! Can't wait to see what else 2012 has to offer.

Armed and Dangerous

against germs that is - and I hope with all my might that I will be victorious!

We have been blessed with really good health for all of us, but especially our children. When Mark came home from the doctors this week with the case of strep throat, we just did our best to keep the girls a safe distance away from him until the 24 hours passed when he wasn't contagious anymore. He had antibiotics and was resting and I honestly didn't give it much thought to doing anything for the rest of us.

Yesterday after coming home from a play day at our friends home, both girls fell asleep right away, which for Kaley is a rare event. She woke up an hour later crying, with a fever of 102 and complaining that her throat hurt- oh oh! I didn't want to jump to conclusions yet, but I wanted to catch it early in case she caught what Mark had. I went downstairs to get the bottle of probiotics out of the refrigerator and to my dismay, found out that it had expired. So then, I went to find the Tylenol and found that the four bottles of Infant Tylenol and the one bottle of Children's Tylenol had also expired. I gave Kaley some juice and a cool washcloth and headed out to the store.

It was on the ride to the store that it dawned on me that not only did the girls and I need to be taking probiotics, but especially Mark since he was on antibiotics - duh! A short while later, and having spent a small fortune on stocking up on all of the important items, I returned home to try and get everyone back to good health.

I pulled out the ingredients for the Natural Disinfectant Spray to make up a new batch, gave everyone the their "medicine" and prayed that we would get out of this quickly.

This morning I was so relieved that Kaley woke up and was her happy bubbly self, no temperature and her throat felt fine:-) Whew! Just to make sure that we are free and clear, today's job will be disinfecting our home which is a good thing to do anyways. I wish I could say the Mark is just as good, but unfortunately he has to let time and his body do the work of getting better . It is hard to watch him go through this, but I'm glad he is taking it easy and hopefully will come out of this soon.

Good health to everyone this new year!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Today is the day 10 years ago that I married my best friend. What a great 10 years it has been. In those 10 years, we have moved to a different country, bought our first family pet, lived in 4 different homes, moved our church once, had two adorable children and survived the sleepless nights, loved, laughed, prayed and have gained much wisdom along the way.

May the next 10 be just as amazing as the first have been.
Happy Anniversary my love!

God has given me
Someone like you
To have and to hold
‘Till our lives are through
Our lives together
Was planned from the start
It was there in the making
When love touched our hearts

By M.S.Lowndes