Smattering of Sunday Thoughts

Well hello, faithful blog readers.  Has it really been over a month since we last met here?  I've missed the outlet of writing out thoughts from daily life here, but "free time" has become somewhat of a joke in my life lately. ;)  In desperation last week I cried out to my husband, asking for a few hours a week outside of the house, alone, to simply sit and have a complete thought.  Today is my second Sunday of such "dates" with myself, and I hope and pray it will become a weekly Sabbath tradition, this sitting, reading, praying, journaling, blogging, etc., from the local Chocolate shop.  Yes, you read that right.  I've given up the coffee shop scene...I don't drink coffee, and can't currently have any of the frilly treats that all contain dairy products.  But dark chocolate?  Made without any milk?  Yes, PLEASE!  I can't even begin to describe to you the joy and relief I found when I made this little discovery.   So though I make no promises of this post being clear, concise, or organized, because my mind is all in a jumble these days, here's a rundown on our life as of late:

Since adding a teenager to our family, it's been interesting for me to see where my extra time has come from.  Because I certainly didn't think I had any extra time to give, but it has to come from somewhere, right?  Turns out, I spend way less time on Facebook, I gave up reading 75% of the other blogs I was subscribed to, I watch less TV in the evening, and I go to bed way later than I want to or should.  That has probably been the (physically) hardest thing about having a teenager in the house.  Around 9:00 p.m., just about the time I am ready to shut down and close up shop for the day, she magically comes alive and starts to talk.  And I mean really talk, about important stuff that she needs us to hear.  I heard somewhere that teenagers are like oysters, they open up briefly and for short intervals, so you need to jump at every opportunity to drop what you're doing and listen!  So we do.  And God has been faithful to give me the grace I need to make it through the next day even if (when!) the baby has me up multiple times a night following a late night, and prior to an early morning wake-up call.  I was SO thankful for Daylight Savings' time hitting when it did this year...it has been bliss, BLISS I tell you, having at least 2 of our 3 kiddos sleep past 7!  Sometimes 8!  The first morning after the time change I hardly knew what do do with myself when 7:00 came and went and no one was awake needing my attention.  I actually got my house dusted before they got up, for the first time in...well...I'm not going to tell you, because that would be too embarrassing, but it had been quite awhile!  I could get so much done if this tradition continues!  To be honest most mornings I haven't been all that productive...but I have been trying to catch up on all the extra zzzzzzs I can squeeze in.

Let's see, an update on the kiddos anyone?  Grandparents?  Great-grandparents?  Are you going through withdrawal from lack of pictures?

Shortly after Valentine's Day, my dad and Tim took the girls on a special date at my dad's church.  Aren't they adorable?

Audrey has really stepped up her game these last few weeks, and is truly taking on the role of big sister.  She's becoming genuinely helpful, and decided Justus needed to learn the ins and outs of some modern technology one afternoon:

Norah, AKA "Bruiser," and her broken nose.  Norah: 0, Dining Room Chair: 1

She's also been working hard on learning how to write her letters!  

She knows how to spell her name, and can legibly write a few of those out, can you spot them?

She's little Miss Attitude, most days.  Super feisty.

But as quick as she turns it off, she can turn it back on again.  Super sweet.  This girl cracks us up and keeps us on our toes.

Justus turned 7 months old today.  SEVEN MONTHS OLD, PEOPLE!!!!!  Wasn't he just born, like, a month ago or something?  I can't believe how fast his first year is flying by.  Here are some photos I took at his 6 month milestone:

I cannot get enough of these cheeks.  I kiss them all day long. Repeatedly.

And this lip....this pouty lip!  It's going to be nearly impossible for me to deny this little pouty lip.

Mr. J-Man has started a few solid foods.  And by started I don't mean he eats them, he mostly just plays with his food, rolls it around in his mouth, and spits it out.  But he sure has fun!

Some notable quotables from the last few months:

Every time I sit down to read the girls a book before naptime, Audrey says "Mommy will you put your arm around me?" Then I do, and she sighs, "there, that's much more comfortable."  I usually try to do it to Norah too, but she removes my arm from around her shoulder and states matter-of-factly, "Mommy, I am NOT your snuggle bug."  They have different love languages, my daughters do.  It's so fun to figure them out!  Just this afternoon I was carrying Norah home from a family walk early because she suddenly had to go potty.  She was stroking my hair, telling me all about how she was taking the tangles out of it for me, then holding it out of my face so the wind wouldn't blow it.  The wind stopped blowing momentarily, and she told me "I was talking to Jesus about that.  I asked him to stop the wind blowing."  I told her she was sweet and kissed her on the cheek.  She responded with, "Mommy, I need to tell you someting.  I don't like kisses anymore."  :(  Guess what?  She's gonna keep on getting them!!  Silly girl.

Shortly after I started Justus on some solid foods, I asked Tim one night at dinner if he would sit next to Justus' highchair so he could feed him.  Norah's made the funniest face, then practically shouted, "but DADDY can't feed Justus, Daddy doesn't have BREAST-ES!"  We all cracked up so hard at that one.

One day at naptime as I was leaving Audrey's room I saw her finger begin to enter the forbidden zone of the nostril, so I gently told her to stop picking her nose.  She remarked, "But Mommy, it's like there's a loose tooth in my nose!"  Funny, I totally understood the feeling she was talking about!  (I handed her a Kleenex to get it out.) :)

Speaking of naptime, one afternoon Audrey came out of her room and told me "It's really hard to sleep when I keep swallowing saliva."

I've been experimenting with a variety of breakfast bars from Pinterest lately.  Some have been big hits with the kiddos, some not so much.  My most recent experiment was a rip roaring success; Audrey took one bite and remarked, "Mmmmm, Mama, I think you got the recipe right."

Another day she was really satisfied by my cooking.  So much so that I got a "Mommy, you made my wish come true by making this the cheesiest!  So you're kind of the hero of the day!"

One of my favorite phrases that Norah uses these days is "make sure-ing."  Oftentimes I ask her what she's doing, and she responds with "I'm just make-sureing this isn't breaking," or some such thing.  So sweet!

Lastly, I'll leave you with an answer key that I've been mentally compiling to help me decipher the text messages of our resident teen.  At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I must say that the abbreviations get seriously ridiculous.  Whatever time she saves by typing in this abbreviated faux-language, I surely spend while trying to interpret it.  For example:

"sumtn" - something
"afta" - after
"ig" - it's good
"whteva" - whatever
"N" - and
"b" - be
"wit" - with
"Idk" - I don't know
"guna" - going
"Ikr" - I know, right?
"u" - you
"tht" - that
"tho" - though
"jus" - just
"dis" - this
"Ik" - I know

Got it?  If you get a funny text from me, you'll know why.  I'm learning the language of teens, people.

All in all, life right now is full, busy, crazy, stressful, fun, exhausting, good.  Really good.  What we're doing right now is hard, but we've found that while doing kingdom work is hard, it is right where we want to be!  We cannot be refined unless we walk through the fire.  It forces us to press into God for wisdom and strength and sustenance.  So that's where we want to be!  We covet your prayers.

And thanks to you faithful ones who continue to check this blog and read it when I get around to posting!  And you get 5 bonus points if you made it all the way to the end of this long one.

That's all I've got for now.  See you again in a few...weeks, months, somethings!

Notable Quotables...and a few photos

A few conversations and photos that I want to remember when I think back on these days:

Norah occasionally sounds like a teenager trapped in a 2-year-old's body.  She's the queen of funny exclamations and big words.  (And unfortunately a few eye-rolls....already!!)

She can often be heard espousing, "Double drat!" when she's frustrated, or when something doesn't go her way.   Or "oh my peas!"  (Thank you, SuperWhy.)

And yesterday while coloring at the table I heard her say, "son of a gun!"  Sheesh.  We have Lady and the Tramp to thank for that expression.  I suppose it could be worse.

(image by Lori Kartman Photography.  I should do a post of all the pictures she took of our family, I don't think I did yet?)

The other night at dinner she kept trying to talk, but Audrey wouldn't stop talking, so she and Norah both started talking louder and louder trying to get their point of view across, when Norah finally exploded with, "AUDREY!!!  Stop talking!  I'm starting to feel excluded."  (This expression is courtesy of Fancy Nancy.  We were impressed she used it correctly in context!)

Then one day Audrey swiped a toy from Norah and was reprimanded by her little sister:  "Audrey!  You shouldn't steal toys!  The Bible says "Thou shalt not steal!"

Audrey:
One day in the car last week both girls were whining "what can we DOOOOO?"  This is one thing that absolutely drives me crazy.  Every time we drive anywhere (this was literally a 5 minute trip!) they complain that they are bored.  It's really quite ridiculous.  They ask to bring a toy along in the car whenever we get in the car.  I wrestle between wanting to say 'yes,' because it's an easy thing to say 'yes' to, and there are so many other more important things in the world that I need to say 'no' to, and I want to say 'yes' to them more often.  And yet...they're at the point where they require constant entertainment.  I want them to be able to ride in the car for a few minutes at a time and be content!  Look at the scenery!  Sing a song!  For the love!  I digress.  Continuing on with my story....

We were driving.  They were whining.  I decided to turn the tables.  I whined right back at them.  (I know what you're thinking, stellar application of that wonderful insight on GRACE I posted just days ago, right?  What can I say?  I'm a slow learner.)  It went something like this:

Me:  "What can I DOOOOOOOOOOO?  Driving is so BORRRRRRRRING!"  Wide-eyed, Audrey looked at me in the rear-view mirror and said "No, Mommy!  Don't say that!  You can't use that whiny voice all the way home!"
Me:  "Why not?  You do it."
Audrey:  (pausing and thinking really hard.)  "Because it just doesn't work like that."

Hmmm.  Her line of reasoning wasn't quite as well thought out as this conversation she had with Tim this other night:

A:  "Daddy, why didn't you flush the toilet after you went tinkle?"
Tim:  "How do you know it was me?"
A:  "Because the water in the toilet is green, and yellow and blue make green," (I've been using those automatic bowl cleaner things that turn the water blue,) "and there wasn't any toilet paper so it couldn't have been me or Norah or Mommy, it had to be you or Justus.  And Justus still wears a diaper so it had to be you."

Busted.

A word she's used a few times lately to describe a quantity is "amountment."  As in, "can you give me the same amountment of pine nuts as the peas on my plate?"

This morning when Norah woke up and came to the breakfast table Audrey greeted her with a "Good morning Norah!  How was your sleeping last night?  What did you dream about?"  So sweet and so cute.  I love listening to the little conversations they have throughout the day now.

(This image also by Lori Kartman Photography.)

Have I posted before her dilemma about how Jesus could have been with God when He created Mary if Jesus was in her tummy?  This was a big question over the Christmas season for her.  She's also been asking "what's the gospel?" and "what is faith?"  She's not satisfied with the typical on-the-4-year-old-level answers, either...so needless to say, she keeps us on our toes!

And she's been lovin' her brother to pieces the last few weeks.  It's really sweet to see.  She and Norah can get the biggest smiles and giggles out of him, more than anyone else can!

And Justus.  He's almost 5 months old now.  At his 4-month check-up he was 17 lbs 8 ounces, placing him in the 90th percentile.  Not surprising, considering I had to pull out the 12-month-clothes to accommodate his expanding belly.  The kid does not miss a meal.  And check out his mohawk!  It's red! And it cracks me up.

No quotes from him to post yet.  But he stays busy rolling (tummy to back and just recently back to tummy), spitting up all over the place, and attempting to suck his thumb.  And being cute.  That in and of itself is his primary job right now. ;)  And I'd say he's fulfilling those duties quite well, wouldn't you?

Check out those cheeks!!

Love him!

My Little Helper

I got fed up with my dishwasher not really washing my dishes all that well last week, so decided to just spend a week doing them by hand.  Surprisingly, I discovered that my girls love to help with this chore!  Not only did it easily use up an hour each morning, my kitchen stayed cleaner and they were so happy to spend time with me, rather than hearing me say "just a minute, I'll play with you when I'm done with the dishes," or "hold on, I'm almost finished, I'll help you after I'm done with this."  Sometimes I forget that my kids don't really care what we're doing, they just want to be with me, and do whatever it is that I'm doing.

This is especially true with Norah.  I've been a little bit baffled by her personality, trying to figure out what makes her tick, and what makes her feel loved.  When Audrey was about one, I discovered that taking the first 15 minutes of my morning spending concentrated time playing with her would satisfy her enough to go off and spend the rest of the day happily playing independently.  (If I didn't do this she would whine and hang on my legs all day long until I did!)  Now I've noticed that though she plays independently most of the time, throughout the day she comes up and asks me for some snuggles, and after a few minutes of touch, her love tank is full and she's good to go.

Not so with Norah.

She's an introvert, for sure.  When she gets overwhelmed by people, just tired and worn out, or sobbing and at the end of her emotional rope, she asks for "crib time."  I pop her in the crib with her binky and about 10 minutes later she calls for me, "I'm ready to get out!  I found self-control!"  :)  Now that she's potty-trained and sleeping in a big-girl bed, I've been trying to wean her off of the crib, and letting her do her little recharging sessions in her room, or her bed.  It's amazing to me what a reset button it is for her to simply spend a little time alone by herself.  But about 90% of the rest of the time...she's hanging on my legs and begging me for my attention.  "Mommy will you play the dollhouse with me?  Mommy will you be the scary monster and chase me?  Mommy can I help you cook supper?  Mommy I'll be Fancy Nancy and you can be Ms. Glass."  and on and on and on.  And no matter how much time I spend with her...she still wants more.  Are you sensing where this is going?  Her love language is QUALITY TIME.  I can't believe it took me 2+ years to figure this out, but knowing this about her has been so helpful to me!  Rather than get annoyed that she wants my attention all the time, I've been trying to come up with ways that she can work alongside me to get the stuff done during the day that needs to be done, as well as taking some time to just sit on the floor and play with her.

My faithful little sidekick, after helping out with the dishes:

(This face cracks me up!  She did NOT like her shirt all wet!  This is also the face that she makes when she asks Audrey for something and the answer is 'no.'  So, so funny.)

(look how many dishes we did!)

SO proud of herself.

Love this girl.

How about you?  Have you figured out your kids' love languages?  I would love to hear how you discovered what they are, and what you do to love them in their own individual ways.

Notable Quotables...just today

Norah brought a Strawberry Shortcake book to Tim,
N: "Will you read this to me, Daddy?"
T:  "Sure.  It's my favorite book."  (note the sarcasm)
N:  (oblivious to the sarcasm) "Yeah! It's your favorite book in the whole wide wide world!  Of Jesus!"


Audrey:  "How do the people who make things with machines make the machine if they don't have a machine?"


Norah:  (randomly throughout the day) "Gerald's in da HOUSE..........!"  (we've been watching a little bit too much Sid the Science Kid.)


Audrey:  "Mommy, am I the best thing that ever happened in the whole wide world?"
Me:  (laughing) "No."
Audrey:  "Oh, what is it then?"
Me:  "You know."
Audrey: "Yeah, I know. I just don't want to say it."  (later she admitted that Jesus is the best thing that ever happened.) :)

Notable Quotables

I kept this post open on my computer all last week, and simply added to it each time the girls said something that made me laugh, or that I wanted to remember.  Enjoy!

*     *     *     *     *

Norah: "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience...Mommy, can I tell you something?  Patience is waiting in line to take our turn!"

2 phrases that Norah says ALL. THE. TIME:  "Excuse me, Mommy, can I tell you something?  Can I tell you something?  Can I tell you something?"  (repeatedly until I acknowledge her.)  And "Rook, Mommy, Rook!  Rook at me!  Rook, Mommy, Rook!"  (AKA, "Look.")  :)

While brushing her teeth, Audrey stopped and was staring in the mirror with her mouth wide open, "I'm so sad because I can almost see some cavities!"  (There was chocolate from an M&M stuck in her teeth.)

Audrey: "Norah, don't eat too much lunch!  Don't forget to save room for candy!"  Guess what day that was?  I'll give you a clue...

(A butterfly, a caterpillar, and a cocoon.  Norah kept saying "I'm so so fuzzy and soft, everyone can feel me.")

Best quote of trick-or-treating night:  A lady handed Norah a bag of pretzels and her face fell.  She looked up and said, "I already have pretzels.  Do you have any M&Ms?"  The lady cracked up and said "yes, I'll go get some."  Norah turned around and yelled to us waiting for her on the sidewalk, "SHE'S GETTING ME SOME M&MS!!!"  She was SO excited about it.

Norah:  "Mommy, I don't yike ketchup.  Can I dip my hot dog in hummus?"

On Tuesday morning I got Norah out of her crib and said "Good Morning!"  She replied:  "I'm hungry.  Can I have something to eat?  Can I have candy?"

Norah:  "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!"
Me:  "What?"
Norah:  "Not you.  I'm just yelling for the dollhouse mommy."

Audrey has an incredibly hard time settling down for naps.  Only about 1-2 times a week do I force the issue, when she's SO tired and I know she just needs to sleep.  I can usually lay down with her, put an arm across her body, and every 30 seconds or so remind her to stop wiggling, stop whispering, etc.  On one such occasion, I could feel her alternately contracting her backside over and over again.  I said "what are you doing?"  She said:  "I'm trying to make a pumpkin with my buns."  !?!?!?  Anything to keep from sleeping, I guess.

Audrey:  "Mommy, thank you for this yummy supper!"
Norah:  "Mommy, fank you for dis yucky supper!"  (Ha!  Good manners coupled with sheer honesty.  Gotta love it.)

Audrey reading the Chex box at breakfast:  "E-X sometimes makes the sound 'ex,' as in "Chex."

A typical rapid fire line of questioning: (Keep in mind that I have conversations like this approximately 137 times per day.)
Audrey:  Mommy, what are you doing?
Me:  Flipping the sausage over.
A:  Over what?
Me:  To the other side.
A: Over to what side?
Me:  The other side.
A:  What does that side look like?
Me:  It's brown.
A:  Does it have lumps and bumps?
Me:  Yes.
Norah:  Can I feel the lumps and bumps?

And those of you who saw my facebook status one morning probably already heard this:
You know you've been pregnant (too?) often over the last few years when your 4-year-old begins a sentence with, "Mommy, when you get another kid in your tummy..."

Audrey at breakfast:  "When Jesus made the world, was He in the world or out of the world?  Because He couldn't make it if He was IN it."

Norah in a Nutshell

I've been recording choice Norah quotes for the last month.  Just getting around to publishing them now. Enjoy.  We sure do!

First words out of her mouth one morning when I got her out of her crib:
"I dreamed about stars yast night.  Because yast night I yaid down in the driveway and I saw the Big Dipper!"  (It's true, she did!)

Every time she eats toast or bread this week, she bites it into a camera shape, holds it up to her face and says, "1-2-3- smile!!!"

She brought a book to my grandma and asked her "Will you read If You Give a Pig a Pancake to me?"  My grandma:  "Sure!"  As she flipped through the book (which is a compilation of 3 stories), she asked "where does it start?"
Norah:  (very matter-of-factly) "At the beginning."

Once or twice a day around mealtime, "Mommy, can we eat alfresco?" (aka, outside.)  Thank you, Fancy Nancy.

She woke up with a runny nose one morning.  When I was changing her clothes she started crying "my nose is running again!!"
Me:  "I'm sorry sweetie, it's no fun to have a runny nose.  I'll blow it right after we get you dressed."
Norah:  (giggling)  "Ohhhhhh, and then it will be fun?"

Anytime I say anything to Justus, Norah looks at me with the funniest dumbfounded expression and remarks, "He can't talk yet!"

When Justus cries, Norah often tells me, "you need to go get your brother!" (Can you tell how I refer to him often?)  :)

She is constantly bringing me her baby doll and a blanket, asking, "Mommy, will you swallow my baby up?"  (Aka "swaddle.")  Or, she does it herself, and says "I'm just swallowing my own baby up."  So cute, and so funny.  Then she will burp her baby, and tell me "you need to burp your own baby."


She's also been drawing a lot lately.  And totally blowing my mind with her progression lately.  Suddenly she's drawing people...faces with eyes and nose and mouth and legs.  And here she is with her "sun" and "spider."  Love. This.

She has very specific opinions about everything, and knows exactly what she wants.  Case in point:
N:  "I'm still hungry.  Can I have someping else?  Can I have some peaches?"
Me:  "I don't have any peaches."
N:  "Oh.  Can you just yook for some?  Mommy can you cook some peaches for me?"

(It's not a peach in the photo.  It's an apple.  Can you tell she eats her favorite foods with gusto?)

She's really into ages lately.  She's always holding up 2 fingers and saying "I'm this old," and holding up 4 fingers and saying "Audrey's this old!"  The way she asks someone their ages is hilarious to me.
N:  "Mommy, what's your old?"  When I told her I was 31, she looked a little confused.  Audrey clarified for her, "Norah, you don't have 31 fingers!"

After reading our new books, she looked up at me and asked very innocently, "Can I go to heaven someday?  Will you come wif me?"  And in more recent conversations she has come up with the idea (independently,) "When I die someday and go to heaven I'm going to snuggle with Jesus.  Because I love God.  God will snuggle with me.  I love dying."  My goodness.  Not exactly words you expect to come out of a 2-year-old's mouth!

Another thing that blows us away about Norah is the sheer length of her sentences.  Last weekend she asked me why the baby bathtub was on the kitchen table.  I told her "Daddy moved it out of the bathtub so there would be room for you and Audrey last night when you took a bath."  She replied, and I quote, "Ohhhh!!  That would be nice to take that baby bath out of the bathtub so there would be room for us!"

And we eat at The Cafe too often.  For sure.  One night at bedtime I was reading a Bible story to her and I asked her if she remembered what Noah built.
N:  "The Cafe?"  whoops.
And she was pretending last week with a toy cell phone, talking to me.  "Bye, Mommy!  I'm gonna go to work!"
Me:  "Where?"
N:  "At The Cafe."
Me: "Oh, are you a waitress?"
N:  "Yesh.  (Then she thought about that for a second.)  No. I'm not a waitress.  I NORAH."
Me:  "Well, what's your job at The Cafe?"
N:  (Holding up a toy drill) "I'm going to fix it.  I'm going to fix The Cafe building."
Me:  "Oh, okay.  Bye!"
N:  "Bye!  Mommy, can you blow my nose before I go to work?"

I have a scrapbooking sticker that reads "I am here to live out loud."  I think of that often when it comes to Norah.  I couldn't describe her much better than that, this girl just oozes personality.  Can you tell?!?  ;)

And just to give you an idea of how verbal our little word-girl is, here's her Bible verse from a few weeks ago.  It blows me away how much this little mind can store!

Love you, Norah Lou!

Family Photo Fun...

As you can probably tell from our header, (and the wedding picture on our sidebar), we don't usually take your 'average' family photos.

Thankfully, our children are inheriting this valued character trait.  Well, 2 out of the 3 that is.  I take a lot of pictures.  My kids have gotten used to that.  It's not uncommon for me to hear throughout the day,

"Mommy, would you take my picture?"

from #1...

...and #2...

...but #3...well...he's not quite used to it yet.  

Take 1 (he had JUST been smiling, and I missed it!)

Take 2...not a fan of the flash, apparently...but the lighting was bad, buddy, what's a mama to do???

Take 3...really mad at Mommy for taking a picture of the pouty lip.  

Hang in there, Justus.  You'll learn to love the camera...I promise to give you lots of opportunities... ;)

And secretly I am a little glad that I captured this adorable pouty lip on camera.  So sad.  But so cute.