Confident Prayer

This week, Ben is on night shift. Every night, we pray for Daddy, that he would be able to stay awake, and to do his work well, and to come home safe to us!! It is very sweet to hear the kids praying for him. This week was the first time that Noah said his own prayer specifically for Daddy, and he also prayed for Mommy (since I have been sick.)

"Thank you God for Daddy to wake up tonight, and for Mommy's head to feel better... and thank you God, Amen."

Wow...

"Well-fortified cities have broad walls, and so did Jerusalem in her glory days. The New Jerusalem must, similarly, be surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the world and separation from its patterns and ideas. There is a tendency today to break down this holy barrier and make the distinction between the Church and the world merely nominal. Believers are no longer fixed on godliness, questionable literature is widely read, frivolous pastimes are eagerly indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive the Lord's special people of those scared distinctives that separate them from sinners. It will be a bad day for the Church and the world when the proposed amalgamation is complete, and the sons of God and the daughters of men shall be united, and another deluge of wrath is ushered in. Beloved reader, make it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is enmity against God."--Charles H. Spurgeon

Ezra's Appointment

We finally took Ezra to the doctor for a check up. I think he was about 19 pounds, and 28 inches long. And his head was 17 3/4 inches around?? Does that sound about right? I am not sure, I know he has thinned out quite a bit. I haven't been taking many pictures. It seems like we have been really busy so it has been hard to keep up with taking pictures. We'll see what we can do. But, Ezra is healthy and eating well, and sleeping pretty well for the most part, so we will just enjoy every moment with him. He is NOT into cuddling, which is sad for me, but I suppose it is wonderful to see him exploring and learning new things. =)

And a side note:
After a crazy night of trying to get all four kiddos a bath, there is such a great reward in sitting together reading a story and smelling four clean kids.

Psalm 1

This has been the kids memory verse for the past 5 weeks. We have a CD that has put their memory verses to music, and the kids really enjoy it. The mornings we do school work (snicker, hide!!) I will put on the CD and the kids will dance around to it. They did have an assignment that once they learned the whole thing, they were to share it with someone. Anyhow, we were singing it one night as we went to bed, and Noah sang the whole song along with us!! I was shocked!! I didn't know he had been absorbing any of it, let alone all of it. Now, of course, he does not necessarily understand all of the words or pronounce them correctly. But hey, the kid is two and has had some speech issues. I was thinking about how much he had absorbed, and it really hit me how this is the time to really hide God's word in their hearts. They're gonna need it, and so does Momma!! So, for your reading pleasure, here is Psalm 1. My favorite part is how Noah kind of messes up, but says, "but his life (instead of delight) is in the waw (law) of the Lord!!!".

Blesssed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly
Nor stands in the path of sinners
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful
But his delight is in the law of the Lord
And in His law he meditates day and night
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water
That brings forth its fruit in its season
Whose leaf also shall not wither
And whatever he does shall prosper
The ungodly are not so
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous
But the way of the ungodly shall perish

Just something interesting...

This is an article that was on the front page of MSN. I found it interesting; it is about how parents are now "tutoring" their children in order to prepare them for Kindergarten. I was a bit shocked, but at the same time, this is something we have seen over the last few years, as we now see Kindergarten age kids coming home with home work packets. It was also interesting, that a lady said she had worked hard with her son who was the best reader in his Kindergarten class, but the down side was that he was not challenged enough (AKA bored). So, she relaxed and didn't work on things quite as much with her next child. I am distanced from all this, since we home school, but I often have to remind even myself that I do not tailor what I am doing with the kids to grade level standards, state requirements, or what they "should" be doing. We work on what they can do. And that is different for each of them. But yeah, it was an interesting article.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32404017/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?GT1=43001

School work in action

During lunch today, the kids kept saying things like, "I'm going to eat this in a flash!!" Or, "I'll eat this as quick as a cat!!"

I told them to go ahead and eat their lunch.

Caleb said, "But Mom, we're using Vivid Vocabulary!!"

We're still around. There has been fun at the beach, fun with friends, lots of swimming, and lots of living going on. Here are some pictures:
Caleb lost his first (real) tooth, which just happened to be right under the top tooth of his that was already missing.
Ezra got two bottom teeth, and is working on his top ones (it is about time!!) =)
Emma can now swim to the deep end and back without floats, but she still has to wear them because momma is cautious...
Noah is talking more and more, and we are really working on using our words for things instead of just screaming at people.
We have known for a while that Ben's car was needing a new timing belt, and new tires, and the radiator has been cracked. Ben was able to patch it a couple of times, but the radiator finally blew a hole in it on the way to work. He used duct tape so that he could make it home. We knew we did not want a car payment, if we could help it. We considered the "cash for clunkers" deal, but in the end decided that a new-to-us car was better than a new one anyway. In our price range, we were finding a lot of things with over 100,000 miles, but not much with less than that. We ended up with a 2004 Chevy Aveo with only 46,000 miles. After spending all day looking for "Toyota" and "Honda", Caleb said as we walked out of the dealership (having purchased the car), "That car looks really awesome. It looks like a Chevrolet."
I have nicknamed the car "Tiny Little Wonder" because we were able to fit all of our Costco groceries in the trunk and three car seats across the back row. Amazing. And, it gets 27/33 miles to the gallon. As you can see, our driveway now contains both ends of the spectrum.
And, in bigger news, we are reading through Mark's gospel, and came upon these words today, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
That alone has taken up most of my brain space for the day!